Interview Highlight: Crime Stoppers

In this latest Crime Stoppers Victoria episode Clare Dundas from Crime Stoppers Victoria spoke with Peter Greco about safety for your motor vehicle and raised awareness about social media scams to steal your identity. 

You can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 00 or go to: 

Crimestoppers Victoia

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:01):
Welcome to this podcast made possible by Vision Australia Radio.
Your Community Radio Station Visit RVA Radio dot org for
more information on Vision Australia Radio and our podcasts.

S2 (00:13):
Well, really learning so much, catching up with our friends
from Crime Stoppers Victoria this year and Clare Dundas is
back on the line. Hey, Claire.

S3 (00:23):
Hi, Peter. I'm well. How are you going to do that?

S2 (00:25):
You're going especially well at the moment and then lots
of good information. Actually, I'm a bit of a numbers person, Clare.
I like statistics and you've got some statistics regarding the
amount of people that call Crime Stoppers. Victoria It's quite extraordinary.

S3 (00:39):
I dream here we've got some really exciting annual results
to share and I'll kick off with. Did you know
that someone contact Crimestoppers every 5 minutes to share information?
It's quite an amazing statistic to think that every 5
minutes someone's calling us. But over the last year we
recorded over 106,000 tip offs. So there are a lot

(01:02):
of contacts to Crimestoppers.

S2 (01:03):
That's fantastic, because I guess the thing is with that,
you know, if one little bit of a missing piece
can be found through these sort of context, then, you know,
it can be a very, very successful outcome.

S3 (01:15):
That's right. So it's not just the stories that you
hear in the media. It's all the small bits of
information that lead to arrests or case solved. And those
hundred and 6000 tip offs resulted in 733 arrests, 1485 charges,
and close to $35 million in contraband seized. Wow.

S2 (01:36):
That's that's impressive. And at the same time on my scary,
isn't it?

S3 (01:40):
It is kind of scary to think about those numbers,
but really impressive at the same time because what it
goes to show is that Victorians really care about their
safety and they're willing to do what it takes to
help solve crime and to keep Victorians safe at the
end of the day.

S2 (01:53):
And I guess the other thing is, you know, you
don't know what little bit of information that you might have,
how an organisation like Crime Stoppers, Victoria, can use that
to have, you know, a successful outcome like these?

S3 (02:06):
That's right. No information is too small if you're not 100% sure.
We still want to hear from you. So any information
counts and it could be the missing piece.

S2 (02:15):
Oh, that's very, very impressive. We'll continue. Good work. I mean,
in a sense, it's sad that, you know, an organisation
like Crime Stoppers, Victoria has to be around, but by
the same token it's pretty much a bit of peace
of mind for us as well.

S3 (02:26):
Absolutely. And we've also been busy this month launching a
new campaign paytas called. You've been checked.

S2 (02:33):
Out of this?

S3 (02:33):
Yeah, it's a pretty interesting one bit. Crime Stoppers, along
with Vic police have launched this initiative and it's urging
Victorians to lock in, check their cars. I'll give you
a few more numbers because I know you love them.
But we know from our crime data that over the
last year, 14,881 motor vehicle theft offences were reported statewide

(02:55):
and there were also 47,140 deaths from motor vehicle offences
recorded for the same period. So that's a lot of
cars being stolen or things from cars being stolen.

S2 (03:06):
Okay, well, I take that on board, but what can
we do to minimise our chances of being one of
those statistics?

S3 (03:13):
So the whole premise of the You've Been Checked campaign
is really encouraging car owners to break the habit of
leaving vehicles unlocked and their valuables visible. So what we
actually did over this month was we sent members of
Crime Stoppers at and Victoria Place and they actually physically
checked to see whether Cosmo locked or not and whether
valuables were visible.

S2 (03:34):
So I guess, well, maybe, maybe it isn't so obvious when,
when we leave something that is visible or is part
of the problem. Claire, that I'll just duck into the
shop for a second and of course that second maybe
can turn into a lot longer than that. And of course,
some unfortunate people there that are very opportunistic.

S3 (03:52):
That's exactly right. So what with what people are doing
by leaving their cars unlocked is giving that opportunistic theft.
So that person who's looking for that opportunity, the availability
to do that. And what we also know is that 45%
of theft of motor vehicle offences showed no visible signs
of forced entry. So that means that people aren't locking

(04:13):
their cars. So what we're saying here is it doesn't
take long to just lock and check your car, doesn't
matter if you going away for a minute or you're
leaving your car to train station for, you know, an
entire day. You've got to be really careful about locking
your car and making sure that you're not leaving any
valuables visible.

S2 (04:32):
Well, did you say 45% were showed, no diary, no
forced entry.

S3 (04:36):
Exactly. 45% of all cars stolen. So that's yeah. That's
showing you that cars are being left unlocked.

S2 (04:43):
That's amazing. And I mean, you know, it's a bit like,
you know, if you get into a car, you put
on your seatbelt as soon as you get out of
the car, lock it. I guess.

S3 (04:51):
That's right. So it's just about changing behaviour. It's just about,
you know, as soon as you exit your car, you're
locking your car and you're physically checking that it's locked,
you know, with all those. Remotes. Now that we have
to lock our cars, we really need to be checking,
physically checking that they're locked before we walk away.

S2 (05:07):
That's a good point. Isn't Casals where he did okay?
I'm sure I did push that button and I locked
the car. And of course, you only need to make
that mistake once. And it can cause all sorts of
health catastrophes.

S3 (05:18):
It can because, you know, if you think about it,
it's one thing to have your car broken into, but
it's also a really lengthy process to replace your phone,
your I.D., your credit cards and really your car itself.

S2 (05:30):
That's one of the issues, Claire, isn't it, that it's
not just them? Well, I guess the a lot of
people got information on their phone anyway, but now it's
like pinch your purse or your wallet or whatever that
might be sitting on the seat or that information that's there, cards, etc.
all you know, it's such a hassle to, you know,
trying to remember what was there and who you need
to contact and have that card stop, etc., etc.. I mean,

(05:50):
the stress of it is just well, it's almost overwhelming.

S3 (05:54):
The stress and inconvenience issue. So you don't want to
find yourself in a situation where your identity is stolen
because that can take years to resolve.

S2 (06:03):
And of course, you know, you always got to always
be on guard in the future. I wonder if, you know,
this organization has got that information from my I.D. that
was stolen a few weeks or months ago as well.
That sort of lingering doubt that goes on, too.

S3 (06:19):
That's right. So we're just urging Victorians to always remember
to lock and check their vehicles.

S2 (06:25):
That seems a simple sort of thing to do. So
I guess there's two of you or if there's a
family that go out to this, you can all kind
of be responsible and take that on board to get
get the driver in particular to say, listen, make sure
that car is locked.

S3 (06:40):
That's right. And we're not blaming anyone for happens. We're
just saying we can all do a simple lock in
check and we can protect your car and our valuables
and try not to leave valuables in there in the
first instance. But if we do, let's hide them. Let's
not leave them, you know, as temptations for people walking by.

S2 (06:59):
Open invitation. Claire, what about scams? You know, they're sort
of as popular as ever, if I can put it
that way.

S3 (07:05):
Oh, they sure are. Paid scams just increasing, you know,
day by day. But the one that I want to
talk about today is about social media scams. So we're
talking about scammers that are using social media platforms to
deceive unknowing individuals. And it can be quite a frightening
one because they using social media just to target people.

(07:29):
And I guess people are using these platforms to connect
with people. They're using them to maybe enter a giveaway or,
you know, I can a contestant sort of thing. But
in a lot of cases, scammers are using those same
methods to try and get your information.

S2 (07:47):
And I believe that I guess people looking for romance
can be a little bit of a trap as well.

S3 (07:51):
It absolutely is. Romance scams are one of those ones
where they're preying on people's vulnerabilities. And, you know, you
might think, oh, that would never happen to me or
that that's a silly thing, but it actually happens all
the time. I was reading some information and I think
that Australians have lost over $120 million to romance scams
just this year alone. So it's it's not just a

(08:13):
small thing that's going on here. It's people really falling
victim to these romance scams quite often.

S2 (08:19):
They might be people who are lonely people on their own, maybe,
you know, they might have been widowed or maybe in
sort of recent times and perhaps said, you know, click
on the wrong button if you like or go to
the wrong link.

S3 (08:33):
Absolutely. And remember that these people are really convincing if
they're doing this all the time, they knowing the tricks
to try and hook people, you know, what they do
is they scan your social media profile to look for
little hints about something about you. And they use that
as an opening to try and connect with you. And
they kind of really move that relationship along, but they

(08:54):
will never meet you in person, so they're always going
to keep the relationship online. And what the end result is,
is that they want to ask you for money because
there's been some emergency situation that they've encountered, and that's
when they'll use the pressure tactics to, you know, for
you to hand over some money.

S2 (09:11):
That might be something like, you know, my house burnt down.
I need to find some emergency accommodation. Can you help
me by sending me some money? Something like that.

S3 (09:18):
Exactly like that. And of course, you know, that plays
into people's sense of, you know, I want to help
this person. You know, it's just. Yeah, it's preying on vulnerabilities. Yeah, absolutely.
But it's happening a lot.

S2 (09:32):
It's kind of interesting, isn't it, Claire? Like the really
nice people are being hacked by. They're really not nice people.
It's always the two extremes of human behaviour, isn't it?

S3 (09:40):
It is. And then you've got give away or contestant scams.
So they're saying you can win this amazing prize or
sign up to this or, you know, all these kind
of things that you might be served on social media.
But what they're trying to do is just gain your
personal details. And from there they're trying to steal your money,
whether it is. Access your bank accounts will set up

(10:01):
loans in your names. That's what they they're trying to do.

S2 (10:05):
So is there anything we can do to give ourselves
a better chance to not be one of those victims?

S3 (10:10):
Absolutely. So I would say be mindful of how much
you share on these platforms, especially personal information or anything
that could be used against you or your family. We
just need to be really careful about what we're sharing
these days. I mean, you know, a scammer can jump
on any social media profile that's public. They can get
your birthday, your full name, your marital status, sometimes even

(10:32):
where you live, just based on what you've shared. So
we do need to be careful.

S2 (10:37):
Yeah. And I mean, if you say, you know, if
they find out where you live and say, I'm so
looking forward to going to Hawaii for a month, I mean,
that's kind of that's kind of open invitation, isn't it?

S3 (10:46):
It absolutely is. The other thing I would strongly suggest
is to check your privacy settings. Check your privacy settings
for every account that you have. You know, there's so
many different social media platforms these days that we're all on.
So we need to be checking each one for the
privacy settings. And, you know, it is a good suggestion
to make sure that they are set to private.

S2 (11:06):
I don't want to stereotype, but if some of our
listeners might be of an older age group and they're
on social media map, it's a great way to keep
in touch with people they might have overseas or, you know,
people that might have interstate family members, etc.. I mean,
I guess if they can perhaps, you know, call on
their children or grandchildren that if they're a bit more
versed in this area, say, look, I've heard about this

(11:27):
privacy settings. Can you check mine if I can't? Exactly.
Sure what to look for. I mean, there's no shame
in that, is there?

S3 (11:33):
There's no shame in that. And that is such a
good recommendation that we need to be having these conversations
with everyone. We need to be talking to our friends
and family about scams that we've read, about, scams that
we've seen. We've got to have that conversation so that
we try and prevent your loved ones from falling victim
to these sort of things. So I would absolutely encourage,
you know, talk to a friend, talk to a younger

(11:54):
family member and say, would you mind just having a
look at my profile and making sure that my settings
are all private and that, you know, I'm not sharing
my personal life with the rest of the world, basically.

S2 (12:06):
Conversely, Claire, I guess if you look at reviews that
can maybe give you a bit of a hint as
to what others have experienced when dealing with an organization.

S3 (12:15):
Absolutely. It's a good idea to check reviews before buying online.
So what you're looking out for is whether this is
a reputable seller or not, because there's lots of fake
traders out there pretending to sell things that never turn
up or are of a very poor quality. So check
your reviews. Check whether people had said that that try
to is reputable or not.

S2 (12:36):
And again, often if you Google organization like that, you
get the reviews that come up. So I read through
them and I mean, you know, as you say, if
if people are sort of saying less than favorable things,
maybe give that a wide berth. I mean, whatever you're
wanting to buy, perhaps they can buy it from another
guy or somebody that that might be a little bit
more expensive. It might be a saving of stress in

(12:58):
the long run.

S3 (12:59):
I would I would see clear. And lastly, I would
say to be wary of who you friend on these platforms,
if you don't know them, you need to kind of think,
why are they adding me on this platform? And you've
got to be really careful about what you share with them.
Based on what we're seeing here, there are a lot
of scammers out there that are trying to find people

(13:20):
by these platforms and steal personal details and then in turn,
steal your money. So be careful about who you friend.

S2 (13:28):
You sound like you're a good friend of ours. I will.
I will keep you on our list as far as
friends go and ask people and to find out more
about the work that you do or in data. Get
in touch with Crime Stoppers, Victoria. What was that one
call every 5 minutes. So in the time we've been speaking,
you've probably had three calls. So that kind of gives
you a bit of a perspective, doesn't it?

S3 (13:48):
That is exactly right. So if you know something about
any crime or you want to share some information with Crimestoppers,
it is one 800 333. 000 is the number that
you can call. We've also got the website. It's Crime
Stoppers week dot com didyou and what we're finding these
days is that a lot of people are reporting online
so they're feeling really comfortable with the process. It's very easy,

(14:12):
very straightforward when you jump on the website to report
a crime. And we're finding that a lot of the
reports are coming through via that way as well. Okay.

S2 (14:21):
And what, 800, 333, 000. You can access that number
right around Australia in your particular state or territory. Claire,
great to catch up. We'll catch up again next month
and you kind of make us feel happy and sad
at the same time that there's good work going on.
But also we've got to have our guard up. So
I guess to be forewarned is to be forearmed. So

(14:41):
thank you for being with us and alerting us.

S3 (14:43):
Thank you so much for having me on the show.
It's always a pleasure.

S2 (14:46):
Don. That's there from Crime Stoppers. Victoria.

S1 (14:50):
This podcast was made possible by Vision Australia Radio Visit
via Radio dot org for information on Vision Australia Radio
News Interview. Reviews and more of our podcasts via radio
dot org.