Some senior citizens from Vermilion County got a lesson Tuesday on ways to avoid becoming the victim of scams. Heather Calcara, Community Outreach Liaison for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, noted that often the scammers call people….
{AUDIO: ‘’What these scammers do is they try to invoke emotion, and then they will use those to manipulate those to whatever their end goal is. So if they think that you’re worried – you’re concerned – I’m going to go with that. If, for some reason, they’ve got you angry, they’re going to get you heated up to the point that maybe you’re going to start disclosing information that you didn’t realize.’’}
Calcara added there is a simple way to avoid being scammed over the phone…just hang up….
{AUDIO: ‘’They can’t get your information, and they can’t get your money if you’re not talking to them.’’}
Calcara was speaking to a gathering at the CRIS Healthy Aging Center in Danville.
State Senator Paul Farachi and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office put on the program. Senator Farachi was surprised by the turnout…
{AUDIO: ‘’I think it really speaks volumes to the fact that we need these kinds of resources – not just for our seniors, but for everybody that may have questions or issues about potential scams.’’}
Calcara said no state agency will ever call asking for your personal information. And she added scammers will often use emails or text messages….
{AUDIO: ‘’A lot of times the verbiage is emotion prompting – so it’s ‘Urgent’, ‘Something’s Being Suspended’, ‘Something’s Being Canceled’ – ‘You need to take care of this now.’ That should be red flag verbiage. If you click on the links that are in these texts and in these emails, a lot of times it will download malware onto whatever device you are using.’’}
Calcara says you should always investigate a company’s reputation. And when making online transactions, use as many sources as possible to verify the company’s legitimacy and quality of products or services offered.
For more information visit www.IllinoisAttorneyGeneral.gov.
