TAMAQUA — A program designed to educate Schuylkill County senior citizens on ways to avoid becoming victims of financial fraud was held Wednesday at the Tamaqua Salvation Army.
The fifth annual Scam Jam was attended by about 30 people who learned about investment and other scams currently being used to try to bilk them out of their hard-earned money.
Among the speakers were Schuylkill County District Attorney Christine Holman and chief county Detective Dolores “Dolly” Malec, head of the county Elder Abuse Task Force.
Holman spoke on “Scams and Solutions,” explaining how people get “scammed” when shopping and buying online and how to protect themselves from becoming a victim.
When shopping online, the district attorney said, credit card information should never be given unless the website being used is reputable and secure.
“Don’t trust a site just because it claims to be secure,” she said.
Both the district attorney and Janene M. Holter, senior supervisory agent with the state Office of the Attorney General’s Education and Outreach Program, explained the various scams currently being used to steal not only money but a person’s identity.
Among the scams seen recently include calls and text messages claiming to be the Internal Revenue Service, lottery scams asking people to send money to confirm or receive lottery winnings, calls telling people they missed jury duty and must pay a $50 fine and the Grandparents Scam in which the caller says a grandchild or other relative is in trouble or arrested and is in need of money.
Holter said that with senior citizens using websites such as Facebook, a Sweetheart Scam is becoming more frequent. In this scam, she said, a person contacts someone and claims to be looking for a long-term relationship. After some contact back and forth, the person asks for money for various reasons in hopes of playing to the heartstrings of the person with whom they are in contact.
“We have to be very careful of our elderly adults getting on social media,” Holter said.
Holman said it is hoped by educating senior citizens about the ways they could be scammed out of their life savings they will not fall victim to financial troubles.
“We want the elderly residents in Schuylkill County to keep their hard-earned money for their own use,” she said. “I don’t want them being bilked out of their hard-earned savings.”
Jennifer Drake, account executive fort Independent Living Services, said Wednesday’s session in Tamaqua was the fifth presented to Schuylkill County senior citizens over the past two years.
Education, she said, is the key to avoid being a victim and it is hoped some of the material provided Wednesday will help in that goal.
Among the other speakers was Doug Hassenbein, assistant investor education coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities.
He explained the various “get rich” scams dealing with investments and warned those attending not to enter into new investments or change existing investments without getting all of the facts first, no matter how good it may sound.
“If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” he said.
Regarding scam artists, Hassenbein said “his or her goal is to get your money, period.”
Also on hand and addressing the group were Major Sharon Whispell, commanding officer of the Tamaqua Salvation Army, and Anthony Wolchasty of the Pennsylvania AARP Consumer Issues Task Force and a retired United States Postal Service inspector.
Drake said that it is hoped that the knowledge those attending received Wednesday at Scam Jam will enable them to better detect offers that are too good to be true and help them to hone their skills when it comes to potential scam artists who want to entice them with very “lucrative” investment and financial offers.