January 4, 2026 • 30 mins
Oregon's online voter registration system has changed. Don't fall victim to a financial scam. How music affects us.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. This week, Oregon's
online voter registration system is changing. We'll give you tips
to avoid financial scams and how music cuts through stress.
Online voter registration has changed in Oregon. Instead of only
needing a driver's license, now voters can use the last
four of their social security number plus a digital photo
(00:27):
of their signature. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Reid joins
us on Local Voices. How is online voter registration changing?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
HOSPIL forty one to thirty three was passed by the legislature,
which directed us to essentially put online the same process
and format that voters can use to register by paper,
and that's what we're doing here.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
How are the last four digits of a social security
number used to verify identification?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, it's important to note that that's just one element
that can be used. It's much like when we have
apply for a loan or a credit card, or any
of those sorts of things. It's one element, and our
county clerks are using that along lots of other things,
including age and address and all of that sort of thing.
(01:12):
And when any of those things don't line up, you're
going to hear from your county clerk and be asked
to confirm things directly on.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
The paper version of the voter registration. The last four
of the socials.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Allowed, right right, we're doing this just as I said.
We're putting online the same format, the same process that
exists by paper, but according to the to the legislatures
and instructions. And what's really going on here is we're
trying to make it easier for eligible people to register
to vote, to have that information confirmed, and to be
(01:43):
part of what's a fundamental part of our democracy, holding
politicians accountable. I think what people need to be frustrated
by is the twenty plus percent of Oregonians who are
eligible and are not voting, and that's something we should
all be working on.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Sending a digital thing photo of a signature is also required.
Is that signature verified?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It is verified in the in the same way that
you know lots of other things are verified with signatures.
We have another one on file from somewhere we can
use that, but it's just one data point amongst many.
And if if something isn't lined up, that person's going
to hear from their county clerk.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
How does a verification process work. Does the local county
clerk's office do it?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
They do.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
They they will make sure that everything lines up. And
you know, they are on the ground in those counties.
They have the opportunity. They maintain those voter rolls for
their county and they will reach out directly and if
something doesn't line up, they will they will talk to
that voter, they will look for those other pieces of information,
they'll communicate with them directly. So this is UH. You know,
this is all I think from from the UH the
(02:48):
standpoint of trying to make it easier, more convenient for
eligible people to be active participants in what's this fundamental
the most central part of our of our democratic process.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
There are people who question whether there's enough security and
voter registration.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
What do you tell them, Well, I understand why election
security is a question. I think we have seen a
lot of examples, frankly in the recent past of politicians
who are instead of wanting to listen to voters to
accept the results of elections, they want to allege fraud.
They don't want to give up power. But the simple
(03:25):
fact is there is no evidence of that. We have
done those investigations. There's a great study from the Legislative
Fiscal Office that took about twenty years of data across
organ and more than sixty million ballots cast. What it
found was thirty eight cases of fraud. That is pretty
easy math, less than one in a million, and none
(03:48):
of those affected the outcome of an election. Every one
of them was caught and prosecuted. We should be concerned
about not enough people, not enough eligible people voting. That's
what we need to be working on. And it's still
a crime to engage in electoral frauds. It's a crime
to lie on a voter registration form. This is simply
(04:10):
making it easier for people who are eligible to have
access to the fundamental American right, and it's a legislative
policy that we are implementing with all the rigor and
seriousness that it deserves.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Anything else you'd like to add.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's always thanks for asking. I think this is just
an important element for us to think about as we
head into twenty twenty six. We've got two very big
elections and a lot of others. Primary in May, a
general election in November. We want to lead the country
in voter turnout. I like what I think there's a
single outcome I want in every election. It's high turnout,
low drama, and that's what we're eamed at.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Oregon's Secretary
of State Tobias Read explaining changes to the online voter
registration system. The amount of money people lose to scammers
continues to rise. Artificial and heligence is helping to make
their scams look more and more real. The State of
Oregon has tips on how to spot and avoid these scams.
(05:07):
Jason Horton with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation joins
us on Local Voices. Jason, one of the scams is
called pig butchering. What's that? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Those are scams where people are building trust or romance
type schemes where they will reach out to you, build
trust and then once trust has been established, then they
go in and they take money or get you to
(05:37):
give them money.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And how would these start? Maybe through like social media, social.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Media, texting, different apps that you may have to communicate
with people like WhatsApp, those platforms.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Now, deep fake impersonations are another way that people can
get caught. How does that work?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, that's where the fraudsters are using AI to spoof
people that you may know, or celebrities or different people
like that to get you excited to engage with them.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
These can be very realistic looking any advice on how
to determine whether they're real or not.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
If it comes out of nowhere, or if it's too
good to be true, it's probably a scam and you
should not engage with it. And then if there's a number,
look up the number online or look up the number
of the company or organization that they say they're.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Representing, right, and find that number on your own, and
then check to see whether it's legitimate.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
You absolutely don't rely on the information that they give you, right.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Phantom AI training bots, I haven't heard about these. What
are these?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Very similar to the deep fake It's just scammers will
reach out to you using AI to get you onto
trading platforms that are not real.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So digital asset and crypto fraud to me, crypto is
kind of difficult for me to wrap my mind around
anyway in the first place. But what should we watch
out for with digital asset and crypto fraud?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, cryptos a pretty big area that I think a
lot of people are confused in And really it's just
if you're getting contacted or people are reaching out to
you about investing in crypto and digital assets. Number One,
chances are they're not registered with the state of organ
(07:38):
and that's against the law. So if those kind of
organizations are or individuals are reaching out to you, more
than likely it's fraud, especially if it's un if you
haven't made contact to them, it's just out of the blue.
So be very very wary of anybody trying to get you,
(08:01):
any stranger trying to get you to invest in crypto platforms.
They're also going to be very vague, and they're going
to not have all the information you're looking for, and
they're just going to repeat the same thing over and over.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Interesting. Now, artificial intelligence equity pitches, some of these can
be fake, but I imagine because it's AI and maybe
difficult to determine that.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, absolutely, like several LEAs are the same thing.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
AI is so.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Vast and expanding and ever changing, and with that, scammers
are usually one step ahead.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
And whether it's private equity or any kind of equity,
stock options, or celebrities or any of these trading platforms,
anything like this, if you're contacted out of the blue,
just know more than likely it's a scam and that
you should not engage and then do your own research
(09:04):
if you're curious.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
But ninety nine percent of the time it's going to
be a scam if it's something someone or entity contacting
you out of the blue.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Now, social media rife with these types of scams.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh yeah, and this is where social media is where
the romance scams are the big butchering scams, affinity scams
are the biggest because everybody that has social media will have,
you know, their private messages and things like that. And
if you are randomly getting messages from, you know, people
who are say that they're on a trading platform or
(09:47):
say that they're just interested in you. They start off
with a hello, beautiful, or how are you doing? Or
what are you doing today? Or I'd like to get
to know, any of those kind of things. Immediate read
flag that that's a scam.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Plus if you don't recognize the number, that's a scam.
Now a lot of a lot of videos out there,
TikTok and reels and people alleged to be influencers. How
do you how do you cut through those to know
whether a short form video is hyper real?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Again, we encourage people to do their own research off
of the platform that you're looking on, whether it's the
reels or TikTok or Instagram. You if if something piques
your interest, go and research it before you ever invest
in any money. And always we always advise that you
talk to a financial advisor if if you're thinking about investing.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Money, somebody who's registered.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Absolutely, and our site we've got investor guides in different
tools that show you everyone who's registered in orgon or
licensed in organ.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It's amazing some of the text messages scams, right, they
come through that Initially you think, oh, maybe that's one
of my friends and I just don't recognize their number.
But between text messages and WhatsApp traps, what should we
watch for with those?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, same thing as, especially like on the social media,
if you're getting random numbers, you know, the big one is, oh,
I'm so sorry, I must have got the wrong numbers.
And then they try to continue and engage you like, oh, well,
I'm just looking for friends and so on and so forth,
and they try to create a relationship or trust and
(11:35):
then get you to give them financial information. Just like
those other ones. If it's a number you don't recognize,
delete and block it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Absolutely. Older investors are often targeted. What advice do you have,
especially for say kids that have an older parent, what
should they do to talk with them about what's out
there and what they should watch for.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
Yeah, and really it's targeting older individuals who are who
are alone because they prey on lonely older people and
they will use that personal connection that many seniors may be.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Missing in their life. So if you have them in
your life, I think you just need to check on them,
ask them questions, make sure that you are communicating with
them about random people contacting them and what that could mean.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now, in some of these scams, do they actually take
over accounts? What and how can you prevent that or
what do you watch for?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Yeah? Absolutely, don't give your account information out. That's how
you can avoid it. You give Once you give scammers
the ability to access your account, there are a lot
of times where you can't get back in because they
will go and change passwords and use their names and whatnot,
but they'll have access to your funds while you won't.
So never ever give account information to someone you don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Oftentimes you might get an email or a text message
and it has a link that appears to be to
a legitimate website. But in a lot of these cases,
the website even apps can be spoofed. How's that happened.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
I don't know the technical side of how it happens,
But unsolicited messages to you, just like if you're at
work and you get emails that are not something that
you are familiar with or don't look familiar at all,
don't click on the link because sometimes, especially on your phone,
you can give people access to your phone, and you
(13:37):
don't want to do that because nowadays we tech so
much of our information on our phones. So if you're
getting random texts or messages and it's a number you
don't know, never click on the link that is a
number one do not do.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Now, one thing you mentioned was to only work with
registered investors. How do you determine whether somebody is legitimate?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah, I mean, I mean obviously you can do your
own research, or you can go to our website DFR
dot organ dot gov and just look. You can put
in a search bar license investors and it'll it'll walk
you through some links and then you can see everybody
who has had to get an organ license to be
(14:23):
an investor in this state. I mean, you can always
reach out to our consumer advocates at one eight eight
eight eight seven seven four eight nine four if you
ever feel like maybe you've got yourself in a situation
that you didn't want to get in, or that you
may have been scammed, and they can obviously help you
out as well.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Now, the Division of Financial Regulation also has an Investor's Guide.
Where do you find that and what does it offer?
Speaker 4 (14:49):
It is? It's actually on our website and if you
just type in Investor Guide in the search bar. We
created this guide to help people navigate eight investing, how
to invest, not as a financial expert, how to invest,
but how to look for people to invest, strategies and
(15:11):
avoiding financial fraud. And that's on our website as well
and against organ Investor Guide. Put that on the search
bar and that'll take you right to the link.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Jason, thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Jason
Horton with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation with tips
on how to spot and avoid scams. If you need
to get rid of stress, music is a great way
to do that. Why does it work? Manny Munhos talked
with doctor Robert Zatorre, a cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
I have to admit I talk for a living. I
listen to and read news and commentary all week long.
But when I am sad, or angry or stressed out,
heck if I'm happy, I turned to music because I
find it really helps my mood. You hear the beginning
of a song, a piece of music, it could literally
take you back to a specific moment in time. But
(16:05):
why is that? How does it happen? Well, let's ask
an expert. Doctor Roberts Atore is a cognitive neuroscientist at
McGill University, author of From Perception to Pleasure, The Neuroscience
of Music and Why We Love It, Doctor z toy,
I appreciate the time.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Hello, it's nice to talk to you.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
So let's start off with that. Why do we love music?
What is it that it does to our brain that
allows us to connect with it.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, well, that's a fantastic question that we've been looking
at for a I don't know forty years now, and
you know, in terms of the brain, what we find
is that the same parts of the brain that are
responsible for other kinds of pleasures are also active when
(16:56):
we hear music. So for example, if you take a
hungry rat and you offer it food, it will immediately
jump and start eating it. And if you put an
electrode and measure that brain activity, you will find there
are certain cells dopamine, and these are part of what
(17:18):
we call the reward system. So this is basically a
biological system that tells us, Okay, this is really good.
Try to get more of it if you can. And
you can think of it in opposition to say the
pain system. Right, if the animal goes towards I don't know, fire,
it gets burned, and so that's painful. So you approach
(17:39):
certain things, you avoid certain other things. And what we
found is that in humans when we hear music, that
same part of the brain is responding. So music activates
the same reward regions as very basic substances that are
necessary for survival such as food.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
Or water the same and I imagine different also, because
not only can music give us the reward make us
feel better, turn our mood around, it can also make
us feel worse, can.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
It not, Well it can, So what I just described
is in relation to music that we find pleasurable but indeed,
not all music is pleasurable to everybody, and there are
certain items of music that may actually be aversive that
you might want to get away from. And so that
(18:31):
takes us to another another question, which is what determines
individual preference, and so that's also related to the dupamine system,
but it has to do with the experience that we
might have. So as we're growing up, we hear music
of whatever culture we're growing up in. If you grow
(18:52):
up and the US, you're going to hear maybe pop music,
or you're going to hear you know, jazz or whatever
is popular in your family. If you grow up in China,
you might hear, you know, Chinese pop music, or you
might hear traditional Chinese music. And so then as you
grow your brain basically responds to all these sounds and
(19:13):
figures out, Okay, these are the sounds that give me pleasure.
If you then hear something which is different that you
don't know how to interpret, then it's not necessarily always pleasurable.
And this comes to a peak at adolescencement that's the
time of life when you first fall in love and
when you first start making up your own mind about
(19:34):
your likes and your dislikes and also about sharing with
your peers. Right, you want to be part of a
group of people that you have some affinity with, and
you want to kind of, you know, separate to some
extent from your parents and your family. And so music
comes into this very interestingly because if you ask adults
(19:56):
what music they like, it's almost always music of their
own culture. Occasionally you have someone who becomes interested in
other cultures, but that's another matter. But it's also very
likely to be the music you were listening to when
you were in an adolescent So during that time of life,
the doplamine system is highly reactive, which explains, you know,
(20:19):
why we fall in love and also why we do
certain foolishly you know, miss and so forth. So true,
but music is there and we absorb it and it
becomes part of us at that time and it stays
with us essentially for the rest of our lives.
Speaker 7 (20:37):
Which leads me to evolution and what does neuroscience tell
us about how our brain evolved into liking, appreciating, being
really manipulated by sound.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, that's a fascinating question. We don't exactly know the
full answer to it, but it seems like music plays
certain roles that are quite important. I just mentioned, you know,
in adolescence and peer relationships, and I would say social
(21:13):
relationships in general are important and music, you know, helps
those helps form those bonds. But also very early in life.
It's really interesting that almost everywhere on the planet Earth,
moms sing to their babies. This is a very common thing.
(21:34):
And why is that, Well, because you're manipulating the baby's mood,
right if it's if it's crying and fussy, you sing
it a lullaby it so it will calm down. But
if it's kind of bored and you know, not being
very active, you sing it a happy song and make
it laugh and giggle. So even from the earliest moments,
(21:56):
we respond to music, and this may be part of
the reason why it has developed over evolution, is that
it plays such a significant role in what is very important,
which are you know, our relationships with other people.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
Speaking continuing the conversation about evolution memory, I mentioned at
the start of this that that listening, hearing the beginning
of a certain song or piece of music can personally
take me back to a specific day in my youth.
Does how does that work in the brain where that
(22:36):
piece of music will just trigger something and take us
back in time to a certain feeling, a certain smell,
a certain emotion.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, that's that's a very amazing phenomenon that almost all
of us have experienced. And again it comes down to
dopamine and the reward system, because the brain circuitry is
not only you know, giving you information about the experience
(23:04):
that you're having, whether it's positive or negative, whether you
should approach or avoid or escape or whatever. It's also
at the same time learning what those actions are that
lead to a positive outcome. So the learning component is
really very critical. And because music engages this reward system
(23:26):
and causes the dopamine to release, that means that whatever
else is happening right at that moment when you're hearing
that music, it becomes more fixed in your memory than
if there is no music at that particular moment. And
so therefore you know years later when you hear that
same song, it takes you back because at that point
(23:48):
in time when that song, your memory system was highly responsive.
Due to the influence of the music on the reward
system and on the memory system, the two system are
very closely linked. Things that are positive are things that
you want to remember, and you want to be able
to experience.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
Have a few more minutes here with Doctor robertsatoris a
cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University, author of From Perception to Pleasure,
The Neuroscience of Music and Why We Love It. What
differentiates those of us that are musically gifted, musically creative
and those of us that don't have a musical ability
(24:29):
in our bodies.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, that's a fascinating question that we've looked at as well.
So the good news is that everyone can be trained
to learn, to appreciate or even to produce music. So
almost almost anyone could be trained to sing a song,
(24:51):
for example, or to tap along to the beach or
something like that, or to dance. However, there are limits
that are probably posed by our genetics some extent, and
we know that genes influence brain development, and brains developed
in different ways depending on our genes and also depending
(25:12):
of course on our environment. And so if you are
born into a musical family, you probably have some genetic
impact that's already positive. Plus you're then exposed to the music,
so it's not a surprise when those kids grow up
they are often much more musical than someone from a
(25:33):
less musical family. And when we look at the brains differences,
so people who are very musical tend to have more
development in the auditory parts of the brain, which is
not that surprising, but also in the connection between the
auditory part of the brain and the motor part of
the brain, the part that controls movements. And that also
(25:54):
makes sense because when you are very musical, you tend
to be able to play musical instrums, or to sing,
or to dance or in general to create sound by action.
And so that pathway is sort of strengthened both you know,
by your experience by using that pathway, by learning to
(26:16):
play musical instrument, but also by the way your your
genes have set up that particular pathway. So some people
have an advantage over others, but like I said, almost
everyone can learn. Even though you know, you may not
become the world's expert musician, but you can still adapt
(26:36):
your brain to enjoy as much music as you can.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
We often hear about the two hemispheres of the brain
in different areas of the brain are responsible for different things.
Are both hemispheres of the brain important for music.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yes, but in different ways in different aspects of music,
though in my book I go into a lot of
detail about this. The right side of the brain is
really more important for things like pitch and harmony, and
so that's you know, quite important. If that area is
not so developed, or if it suffers, you know, some
(27:11):
kind of damage like a stroke, people will help difficulty
perceiving the difference between different melodies or different chords. However,
other parts of the brain, including in the left hemisphere,
would be more important for things like rhythm and timing,
and so, you know, the whole brain really is involved
in music, but different circuits within different hemispheres contribute differently
(27:38):
to those those different aspects.
Speaker 7 (27:40):
And I guess the perfect thing to end it on
along those lines. We've learned so much, it seems, over
the last few years, about the ability of music to
be therapeutic to people who've suffered everything from traumatic brain
injury to a stroke.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yes, so, in part, you know, because there has been
a lot of basic research, which is, you know, mostly
what what I do is looking at brain circuits and
using brain imaging. In part because of that, there has
been a big development of music therapy to try to
apply to different disorders so people are using music therapy,
(28:21):
for example, as a way of pain control, to try
to lessen pain during certain features or even chronic pain.
There's also a lot of interest in using music as
a rehabilitation strategy for like you said, stroke patients, particularly
because music can make you move, you know, like rhythmic
(28:44):
music with a strong beat, and so that can facilitate
the movement, which helps people who might have trouble with
gait or with other other forms of movement. And because
music engages the reward system, there's very interesting research trying
to use is it to help people with certain forms
(29:04):
of depression, for example, in Parkiston's disease, those patients often
don't enjoy things that they used to enjoy because of
their disease, and so music could be to get towards
their reward system and you know, engage them in a
way that maybe other other things don't don't do.
Speaker 7 (29:28):
That's fascinating. Doctor Robert Satory, cognitive neural neuroscientists at McGill University.
The book is titled From Perception to Pleasure, The Neuroscience
of Music and Why We Love It. Doctor Saty, I
sincerely appreciate it for the time best of luck.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Thank you so much, Thank you very much, Take care.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Thanks for listening to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. You
can hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the
podcast tab. Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio.
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. This week, Oregon's
online voter registration system is changing. We'll give you tips
to avoid financial scams and how music cuts through stress.
Online voter registration has changed in Oregon. Instead of only
needing a driver's license, now voters can use the last
four of their social security number plus a digital photo
(00:27):
of their signature. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Reid joins
us on Local Voices. How is online voter registration changing?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
HOSPIL forty one to thirty three was passed by the legislature,
which directed us to essentially put online the same process
and format that voters can use to register by paper,
and that's what we're doing here.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
How are the last four digits of a social security
number used to verify identification?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, it's important to note that that's just one element
that can be used. It's much like when we have
apply for a loan or a credit card, or any
of those sorts of things. It's one element, and our
county clerks are using that along lots of other things,
including age and address and all of that sort of thing.
(01:12):
And when any of those things don't line up, you're
going to hear from your county clerk and be asked
to confirm things directly on.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
The paper version of the voter registration. The last four
of the socials.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Allowed, right right, we're doing this just as I said.
We're putting online the same format, the same process that
exists by paper, but according to the to the legislatures
and instructions. And what's really going on here is we're
trying to make it easier for eligible people to register
to vote, to have that information confirmed, and to be
(01:43):
part of what's a fundamental part of our democracy, holding
politicians accountable. I think what people need to be frustrated
by is the twenty plus percent of Oregonians who are
eligible and are not voting, and that's something we should
all be working on.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Sending a digital thing photo of a signature is also required.
Is that signature verified?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It is verified in the in the same way that
you know lots of other things are verified with signatures.
We have another one on file from somewhere we can
use that, but it's just one data point amongst many.
And if if something isn't lined up, that person's going
to hear from their county clerk.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
How does a verification process work. Does the local county
clerk's office do it?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
They do.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
They they will make sure that everything lines up. And
you know, they are on the ground in those counties.
They have the opportunity. They maintain those voter rolls for
their county and they will reach out directly and if
something doesn't line up, they will they will talk to
that voter, they will look for those other pieces of information,
they'll communicate with them directly. So this is UH. You know,
this is all I think from from the UH the
(02:48):
standpoint of trying to make it easier, more convenient for
eligible people to be active participants in what's this fundamental
the most central part of our of our democratic process.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
There are people who question whether there's enough security and
voter registration.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
What do you tell them, Well, I understand why election
security is a question. I think we have seen a
lot of examples, frankly in the recent past of politicians
who are instead of wanting to listen to voters to
accept the results of elections, they want to allege fraud.
They don't want to give up power. But the simple
(03:25):
fact is there is no evidence of that. We have
done those investigations. There's a great study from the Legislative
Fiscal Office that took about twenty years of data across
organ and more than sixty million ballots cast. What it
found was thirty eight cases of fraud. That is pretty
easy math, less than one in a million, and none
(03:48):
of those affected the outcome of an election. Every one
of them was caught and prosecuted. We should be concerned
about not enough people, not enough eligible people voting. That's
what we need to be working on. And it's still
a crime to engage in electoral frauds. It's a crime
to lie on a voter registration form. This is simply
(04:10):
making it easier for people who are eligible to have
access to the fundamental American right, and it's a legislative
policy that we are implementing with all the rigor and
seriousness that it deserves.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Anything else you'd like to add.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's always thanks for asking. I think this is just
an important element for us to think about as we
head into twenty twenty six. We've got two very big
elections and a lot of others. Primary in May, a
general election in November. We want to lead the country
in voter turnout. I like what I think there's a
single outcome I want in every election. It's high turnout,
low drama, and that's what we're eamed at.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Oregon's Secretary
of State Tobias Read explaining changes to the online voter
registration system. The amount of money people lose to scammers
continues to rise. Artificial and heligence is helping to make
their scams look more and more real. The State of
Oregon has tips on how to spot and avoid these scams.
(05:07):
Jason Horton with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation joins
us on Local Voices. Jason, one of the scams is
called pig butchering. What's that? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Those are scams where people are building trust or romance
type schemes where they will reach out to you, build
trust and then once trust has been established, then they
go in and they take money or get you to
(05:37):
give them money.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And how would these start? Maybe through like social media, social.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Media, texting, different apps that you may have to communicate
with people like WhatsApp, those platforms.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Now, deep fake impersonations are another way that people can
get caught. How does that work?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, that's where the fraudsters are using AI to spoof
people that you may know, or celebrities or different people
like that to get you excited to engage with them.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
These can be very realistic looking any advice on how
to determine whether they're real or not.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
If it comes out of nowhere, or if it's too
good to be true, it's probably a scam and you
should not engage with it. And then if there's a number,
look up the number online or look up the number
of the company or organization that they say they're.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Representing, right, and find that number on your own, and
then check to see whether it's legitimate.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
You absolutely don't rely on the information that they give you, right.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Phantom AI training bots, I haven't heard about these. What
are these?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Very similar to the deep fake It's just scammers will
reach out to you using AI to get you onto
trading platforms that are not real.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So digital asset and crypto fraud to me, crypto is
kind of difficult for me to wrap my mind around
anyway in the first place. But what should we watch
out for with digital asset and crypto fraud?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, cryptos a pretty big area that I think a
lot of people are confused in And really it's just
if you're getting contacted or people are reaching out to
you about investing in crypto and digital assets. Number One,
chances are they're not registered with the state of organ
(07:38):
and that's against the law. So if those kind of
organizations are or individuals are reaching out to you, more
than likely it's fraud, especially if it's un if you
haven't made contact to them, it's just out of the blue.
So be very very wary of anybody trying to get you,
(08:01):
any stranger trying to get you to invest in crypto platforms.
They're also going to be very vague, and they're going
to not have all the information you're looking for, and
they're just going to repeat the same thing over and over.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Interesting. Now, artificial intelligence equity pitches, some of these can
be fake, but I imagine because it's AI and maybe
difficult to determine that.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, absolutely, like several LEAs are the same thing.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
AI is so.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Vast and expanding and ever changing, and with that, scammers
are usually one step ahead.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
And whether it's private equity or any kind of equity,
stock options, or celebrities or any of these trading platforms,
anything like this, if you're contacted out of the blue,
just know more than likely it's a scam and that
you should not engage and then do your own research
(09:04):
if you're curious.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
But ninety nine percent of the time it's going to
be a scam if it's something someone or entity contacting
you out of the blue.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Now, social media rife with these types of scams.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh yeah, and this is where social media is where
the romance scams are the big butchering scams, affinity scams
are the biggest because everybody that has social media will have,
you know, their private messages and things like that. And
if you are randomly getting messages from, you know, people
who are say that they're on a trading platform or
(09:47):
say that they're just interested in you. They start off
with a hello, beautiful, or how are you doing? Or
what are you doing today? Or I'd like to get
to know, any of those kind of things. Immediate read
flag that that's a scam.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Plus if you don't recognize the number, that's a scam.
Now a lot of a lot of videos out there,
TikTok and reels and people alleged to be influencers. How
do you how do you cut through those to know
whether a short form video is hyper real?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Again, we encourage people to do their own research off
of the platform that you're looking on, whether it's the
reels or TikTok or Instagram. You if if something piques
your interest, go and research it before you ever invest
in any money. And always we always advise that you
talk to a financial advisor if if you're thinking about investing.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Money, somebody who's registered.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Absolutely, and our site we've got investor guides in different
tools that show you everyone who's registered in orgon or
licensed in organ.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It's amazing some of the text messages scams, right, they
come through that Initially you think, oh, maybe that's one
of my friends and I just don't recognize their number.
But between text messages and WhatsApp traps, what should we
watch for with those?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, same thing as, especially like on the social media,
if you're getting random numbers, you know, the big one is, oh,
I'm so sorry, I must have got the wrong numbers.
And then they try to continue and engage you like, oh, well,
I'm just looking for friends and so on and so forth,
and they try to create a relationship or trust and
(11:35):
then get you to give them financial information. Just like
those other ones. If it's a number you don't recognize,
delete and block it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Absolutely. Older investors are often targeted. What advice do you have,
especially for say kids that have an older parent, what
should they do to talk with them about what's out
there and what they should watch for.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
Yeah, and really it's targeting older individuals who are who
are alone because they prey on lonely older people and
they will use that personal connection that many seniors may be.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Missing in their life. So if you have them in
your life, I think you just need to check on them,
ask them questions, make sure that you are communicating with
them about random people contacting them and what that could mean.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now, in some of these scams, do they actually take
over accounts? What and how can you prevent that or
what do you watch for?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Yeah? Absolutely, don't give your account information out. That's how
you can avoid it. You give Once you give scammers
the ability to access your account, there are a lot
of times where you can't get back in because they
will go and change passwords and use their names and whatnot,
but they'll have access to your funds while you won't.
So never ever give account information to someone you don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Oftentimes you might get an email or a text message
and it has a link that appears to be to
a legitimate website. But in a lot of these cases,
the website even apps can be spoofed. How's that happened.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
I don't know the technical side of how it happens,
But unsolicited messages to you, just like if you're at
work and you get emails that are not something that
you are familiar with or don't look familiar at all,
don't click on the link because sometimes, especially on your phone,
you can give people access to your phone, and you
(13:37):
don't want to do that because nowadays we tech so
much of our information on our phones. So if you're
getting random texts or messages and it's a number you
don't know, never click on the link that is a
number one do not do.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Now, one thing you mentioned was to only work with
registered investors. How do you determine whether somebody is legitimate?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah, I mean, I mean obviously you can do your
own research, or you can go to our website DFR
dot organ dot gov and just look. You can put
in a search bar license investors and it'll it'll walk
you through some links and then you can see everybody
who has had to get an organ license to be
(14:23):
an investor in this state. I mean, you can always
reach out to our consumer advocates at one eight eight
eight eight seven seven four eight nine four if you
ever feel like maybe you've got yourself in a situation
that you didn't want to get in, or that you
may have been scammed, and they can obviously help you
out as well.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Now, the Division of Financial Regulation also has an Investor's Guide.
Where do you find that and what does it offer?
Speaker 4 (14:49):
It is? It's actually on our website and if you
just type in Investor Guide in the search bar. We
created this guide to help people navigate eight investing, how
to invest, not as a financial expert, how to invest,
but how to look for people to invest, strategies and
(15:11):
avoiding financial fraud. And that's on our website as well
and against organ Investor Guide. Put that on the search
bar and that'll take you right to the link.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Jason, thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Jason
Horton with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation with tips
on how to spot and avoid scams. If you need
to get rid of stress, music is a great way
to do that. Why does it work? Manny Munhos talked
with doctor Robert Zatorre, a cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
I have to admit I talk for a living. I
listen to and read news and commentary all week long.
But when I am sad, or angry or stressed out,
heck if I'm happy, I turned to music because I
find it really helps my mood. You hear the beginning
of a song, a piece of music, it could literally
take you back to a specific moment in time. But
(16:05):
why is that? How does it happen? Well, let's ask
an expert. Doctor Roberts Atore is a cognitive neuroscientist at
McGill University, author of From Perception to Pleasure, The Neuroscience
of Music and Why We Love It, Doctor z toy,
I appreciate the time.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Hello, it's nice to talk to you.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
So let's start off with that. Why do we love music?
What is it that it does to our brain that
allows us to connect with it.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, well, that's a fantastic question that we've been looking
at for a I don't know forty years now, and
you know, in terms of the brain, what we find
is that the same parts of the brain that are
responsible for other kinds of pleasures are also active when
(16:56):
we hear music. So for example, if you take a
hungry rat and you offer it food, it will immediately
jump and start eating it. And if you put an
electrode and measure that brain activity, you will find there
are certain cells dopamine, and these are part of what
(17:18):
we call the reward system. So this is basically a
biological system that tells us, Okay, this is really good.
Try to get more of it if you can. And
you can think of it in opposition to say the
pain system. Right, if the animal goes towards I don't know, fire,
it gets burned, and so that's painful. So you approach
(17:39):
certain things, you avoid certain other things. And what we
found is that in humans when we hear music, that
same part of the brain is responding. So music activates
the same reward regions as very basic substances that are
necessary for survival such as food.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
Or water the same and I imagine different also, because
not only can music give us the reward make us
feel better, turn our mood around, it can also make
us feel worse, can.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
It not, Well it can, So what I just described
is in relation to music that we find pleasurable but indeed,
not all music is pleasurable to everybody, and there are
certain items of music that may actually be aversive that
you might want to get away from. And so that
(18:31):
takes us to another another question, which is what determines
individual preference, and so that's also related to the dupamine system,
but it has to do with the experience that we
might have. So as we're growing up, we hear music
of whatever culture we're growing up in. If you grow
(18:52):
up and the US, you're going to hear maybe pop music,
or you're going to hear you know, jazz or whatever
is popular in your family. If you grow up in China,
you might hear, you know, Chinese pop music, or you
might hear traditional Chinese music. And so then as you
grow your brain basically responds to all these sounds and
(19:13):
figures out, Okay, these are the sounds that give me pleasure.
If you then hear something which is different that you
don't know how to interpret, then it's not necessarily always pleasurable.
And this comes to a peak at adolescencement that's the
time of life when you first fall in love and
when you first start making up your own mind about
(19:34):
your likes and your dislikes and also about sharing with
your peers. Right, you want to be part of a
group of people that you have some affinity with, and
you want to kind of, you know, separate to some
extent from your parents and your family. And so music
comes into this very interestingly because if you ask adults
(19:56):
what music they like, it's almost always music of their
own culture. Occasionally you have someone who becomes interested in
other cultures, but that's another matter. But it's also very
likely to be the music you were listening to when
you were in an adolescent So during that time of life,
the doplamine system is highly reactive, which explains, you know,
(20:19):
why we fall in love and also why we do
certain foolishly you know, miss and so forth. So true,
but music is there and we absorb it and it
becomes part of us at that time and it stays
with us essentially for the rest of our lives.
Speaker 7 (20:37):
Which leads me to evolution and what does neuroscience tell
us about how our brain evolved into liking, appreciating, being
really manipulated by sound.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, that's a fascinating question. We don't exactly know the
full answer to it, but it seems like music plays
certain roles that are quite important. I just mentioned, you know,
in adolescence and peer relationships, and I would say social
(21:13):
relationships in general are important and music, you know, helps
those helps form those bonds. But also very early in life.
It's really interesting that almost everywhere on the planet Earth,
moms sing to their babies. This is a very common thing.
(21:34):
And why is that, Well, because you're manipulating the baby's mood,
right if it's if it's crying and fussy, you sing
it a lullaby it so it will calm down. But
if it's kind of bored and you know, not being
very active, you sing it a happy song and make
it laugh and giggle. So even from the earliest moments,
(21:56):
we respond to music, and this may be part of
the reason why it has developed over evolution, is that
it plays such a significant role in what is very important,
which are you know, our relationships with other people.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
Speaking continuing the conversation about evolution memory, I mentioned at
the start of this that that listening, hearing the beginning
of a certain song or piece of music can personally
take me back to a specific day in my youth.
Does how does that work in the brain where that
(22:36):
piece of music will just trigger something and take us
back in time to a certain feeling, a certain smell,
a certain emotion.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, that's that's a very amazing phenomenon that almost all
of us have experienced. And again it comes down to
dopamine and the reward system, because the brain circuitry is
not only you know, giving you information about the experience
(23:04):
that you're having, whether it's positive or negative, whether you
should approach or avoid or escape or whatever. It's also
at the same time learning what those actions are that
lead to a positive outcome. So the learning component is
really very critical. And because music engages this reward system
(23:26):
and causes the dopamine to release, that means that whatever
else is happening right at that moment when you're hearing
that music, it becomes more fixed in your memory than
if there is no music at that particular moment. And
so therefore you know years later when you hear that
same song, it takes you back because at that point
(23:48):
in time when that song, your memory system was highly responsive.
Due to the influence of the music on the reward
system and on the memory system, the two system are
very closely linked. Things that are positive are things that
you want to remember, and you want to be able
to experience.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
Have a few more minutes here with Doctor robertsatoris a
cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University, author of From Perception to Pleasure,
The Neuroscience of Music and Why We Love It. What
differentiates those of us that are musically gifted, musically creative
and those of us that don't have a musical ability
(24:29):
in our bodies.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, that's a fascinating question that we've looked at as well.
So the good news is that everyone can be trained
to learn, to appreciate or even to produce music. So
almost almost anyone could be trained to sing a song,
(24:51):
for example, or to tap along to the beach or
something like that, or to dance. However, there are limits
that are probably posed by our genetics some extent, and
we know that genes influence brain development, and brains developed
in different ways depending on our genes and also depending
(25:12):
of course on our environment. And so if you are
born into a musical family, you probably have some genetic
impact that's already positive. Plus you're then exposed to the music,
so it's not a surprise when those kids grow up
they are often much more musical than someone from a
(25:33):
less musical family. And when we look at the brains differences,
so people who are very musical tend to have more
development in the auditory parts of the brain, which is
not that surprising, but also in the connection between the
auditory part of the brain and the motor part of
the brain, the part that controls movements. And that also
(25:54):
makes sense because when you are very musical, you tend
to be able to play musical instrums, or to sing,
or to dance or in general to create sound by action.
And so that pathway is sort of strengthened both you know,
by your experience by using that pathway, by learning to
(26:16):
play musical instrument, but also by the way your your
genes have set up that particular pathway. So some people
have an advantage over others, but like I said, almost
everyone can learn. Even though you know, you may not
become the world's expert musician, but you can still adapt
(26:36):
your brain to enjoy as much music as you can.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
We often hear about the two hemispheres of the brain
in different areas of the brain are responsible for different things.
Are both hemispheres of the brain important for music.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yes, but in different ways in different aspects of music,
though in my book I go into a lot of
detail about this. The right side of the brain is
really more important for things like pitch and harmony, and
so that's you know, quite important. If that area is
not so developed, or if it suffers, you know, some
(27:11):
kind of damage like a stroke, people will help difficulty
perceiving the difference between different melodies or different chords. However,
other parts of the brain, including in the left hemisphere,
would be more important for things like rhythm and timing,
and so, you know, the whole brain really is involved
in music, but different circuits within different hemispheres contribute differently
(27:38):
to those those different aspects.
Speaker 7 (27:40):
And I guess the perfect thing to end it on
along those lines. We've learned so much, it seems, over
the last few years, about the ability of music to
be therapeutic to people who've suffered everything from traumatic brain
injury to a stroke.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yes, so, in part, you know, because there has been
a lot of basic research, which is, you know, mostly
what what I do is looking at brain circuits and
using brain imaging. In part because of that, there has
been a big development of music therapy to try to
apply to different disorders so people are using music therapy,
(28:21):
for example, as a way of pain control, to try
to lessen pain during certain features or even chronic pain.
There's also a lot of interest in using music as
a rehabilitation strategy for like you said, stroke patients, particularly
because music can make you move, you know, like rhythmic
(28:44):
music with a strong beat, and so that can facilitate
the movement, which helps people who might have trouble with
gait or with other other forms of movement. And because
music engages the reward system, there's very interesting research trying
to use is it to help people with certain forms
(29:04):
of depression, for example, in Parkiston's disease, those patients often
don't enjoy things that they used to enjoy because of
their disease, and so music could be to get towards
their reward system and you know, engage them in a
way that maybe other other things don't don't do.
Speaker 7 (29:28):
That's fascinating. Doctor Robert Satory, cognitive neural neuroscientists at McGill University.
The book is titled From Perception to Pleasure, The Neuroscience
of Music and Why We Love It. Doctor Saty, I
sincerely appreciate it for the time best of luck.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Thank you so much, Thank you very much, Take care.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Thanks for listening to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. You
can hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the
podcast tab. Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio.
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