April 30, 2025 • 40 mins
Nobody thinks they'll fall for a scam—until it happens. In this episode, Detective Sarah Moore of the Milton Police Department joins host Christy Weeks to talk about the shocking rise in elder fraud, the emotional toll it takes, and the most common (and oddly clever) scams targeting our seniors.
From fake grandkids to funeral scams, this episode pulls no punches—and offers real, practical ways to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Listen now and learn how to spot the signs before it's too late.
#MiltonAndMane #ElderFraud #ScamAwareness #ProtectOurSeniors #MiltonPD #TrueCrime #DigitalSafety
With the community in mind, this podcast explores the stories, people, and initiatives that make our community unique. Each episode offers insights into local government, highlights Milton's history and future developments, and showcases the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability efforts shaping our city. Join the conversation, celebrate our community, and discover how we're building a better Milton together.
Do you have an idea for an episode or would like to request a specific topic to be covered? Email Christy Weeks, christy.weeks@miltonga.gov
Learn more about the City of Milton at www.miltonga.gov.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for
the city of Milton.
We want to bring you closer tothe heart of our community
through stories that inform,inspire and connect.
Each episode offers abehind-the-scenes look at the
people, projects and prioritiesshaping Milton, covering
everything from local governmentand future development to arts,
culture, sustainability andpublic safety.
(00:28):
Whether you're a resident, alocal business owner or just
curious about our city, this isyour front row seat to what
makes Milton special.
Welcome back to another episodeof Milton in Maine.
I'm your host, christy Weeks,the communications manager for
the city of Milton.
Listen, today's conversation isone of those that hits close to
home for many families in ourcommunity.
We're joined by Detective SarahMoore, with the Milton Police
(00:49):
Department, who brings bothexperience and insight to an
issue affecting countless olderadults elder fraud, from phone
scans to online schemes,financial exploitation targeting
seniors is on the rise andoften goes unnoticed until it's
too late.
In this episode, we'll talkthrough how these scams work,
the red flags to watch for andhow you can protect not only
(01:12):
yourself but your loved ones too.
So let's get right into it.
Welcome, detective Marr.
Appreciate you being here.
Hi, thank you so much forhaving me Before we get into the
nuts and bolts of this wholething, why don't you give us a
little background as to how yougot into law enforcement when
you came to Milton and yourhistory as a detective?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So from a young age I kind of realized that I wanted
to do something to help otherpeople.
At first my parents were notkeen on me being in law
enforcement, so I was like, okay, I'll help people with being a
nurse.
I got to college.
My freshman year I took anatomyand I realized I don't care how
many bones you have.
It was not my favorite.
So then I switched my major tocriminal justice, because at
(01:52):
that time I was still in myteens and I was like you know,
what?
I'm basically an adult.
I can do what I want.
I'll do law enforcement.
I graduated there with mybachelor's in criminal justice
concentration forensics.
During my first semester of mymaster's degree I was still up
in Dahlonega at University ofNorth Georgia running track.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh, my son went up there.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I love it.
Cybersecurity that sounds fun,but I ran track for their
women's track team and duringall of the COVID they canceled
our championships.
I was like you know what?
I'll go to the police academynow.
So I went to the academy in2020, and I've been with Milton
ever since I moved into thecriminal investigations division
about two years ago.
Yeah, but before that I hadthree years on patrol.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow, do you miss patrol?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I do.
I had a lot of fun.
I got to talk to a lot ofdifferent people do a lot of
different things.
It was just something new everyday I'd go to a lot of
different people do a lot ofdifferent things.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It was just something new every day.
Yeah, that's what OfficerTidwell said I asked her if she
misses it, she goes.
Yeah, the community outreach iskind of where my heart is.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, the schedule obviously is a little better in
terms of the family dynamic, butpatrol is, I feel like, for a
lot of us that aren't on patrolanymore that's kind of where our
career started and where ourlove grew.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sure, so it was always fun, but I do love what I
do right now.
I love that, and it's alwaysgood to hear the journey through
college.
Everybody thinks they start outdoing one thing and then
realize that their heart liessomeplace else.
So, as we talk about this.
This is something that thistopic is something that really
concerns me, because my parentsare older.
My dad, I don't worry about somuch, he's not much of a tech
guy.
He doesn't get into the socialmedia, he's not on the Internet
(03:34):
much.
My mom, on the other hand, ifthere is a link to click
girlfriend will click it.
She just it doesn't occur toher that it could be something
nefarious or she falls victim toa lot of the plots and schemes
and whatnot.
So give us the skinny on whatyou're seeing the most of and
(03:59):
some of the big ones that areout right now.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Unfortunately, there are a lot of different types of
the elder community that are outright now.
Unfortunately, there are a lotof different types.
The elder community.
They are more vulnerablebecause they're more trusting of
others.
They're like you know, what thisperson's saying, who they are.
I'm going to believe them,because why would they lie to me
, right?
Unfortunately, not a lot ofpeople are very nice, so a lot
of the scams right now thatwe're seeing are kind of like
(04:22):
romance scams Somebody that'sseeking companionship and we see
this a lot in the elderly, butwe also see it in the younger
generations as well.
They're seeking companionship,but what they don't know is it
is some Joe Smoe in India justwanting their money, right, and
that's unfortunate becausethey're really just wanting that
companionship and that can bedone, whether that's social
media, you know, text messagingapps like WhatsApp and just
(04:46):
various sites that they can fallvictim to.
Another one is, if they're on,like their phones or computers,
is the tech support scams of,where somebody will generate a
little pop up like hey, you know, you're having a technical
issue, call this number and I'llhelp you.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So they'll call the number and thinking, oh my
goodness, crashing like I don'tknow what to do, I don't know
who to call.
They call that number.
That person will then getremote access to the computer.
Then they have access toeverything they've got passwords
, usernames, data burst, socialsecurities, financial and all
these other things.
Another type that's unfortunateare grandparent scams of, where
(05:26):
they get a text or a phone callor an email, social media,
saying hey, you know this is soand so you know like I'm really
strapped for cash.
Can you please send me somemoney?
Or you know, I've been arrestedand I need bail, anything like
that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And they're pretending to be a grandkid or a
member of the family.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It could be little.
Jimmy got arrested forsomething and he needs bail from
Meemaw or Peepaw and they wantto help because they're very
trusting.
Another one that we've beenseeing a lot lately is people
missing jury duty.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
If you miss jury duty .
Speaker 2 (06:00):
They will not call you and say that you need to pay
these in iTunes gift cards.
Right, we have.
It's somewhat comical on ourend because some people will
pose as us with our actual namesfrom our department, but
they'll get the rank wrong,saying I got called by.
We'll just use my name, forexample, like Captain Moore.
I'm like awesome, I got apromotion, sweet, good to know,
(06:21):
thanks.
And they'll say, well, well,you missed jury duty and you
need to pay this fine.
And a lot of the times thesescammers will say I'll meet you
in the police department, likeparking lot, we're like, would
they actually show up?
But a lot of the times isthey'll ask for a gift card and
you'll send them a text or anemail and then they'll take the
money out of that gift card.
One that's not super common,but I have seen it a few times,
(06:44):
are the funeral home andobituary scams.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Oh, I haven't heard of this one.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It's a little diabolical.
Basically, these scammers willgo scour the internet for
obituaries, figuring out who theperson is that passed away,
their family, where they wereburied, or they'll even attend
the funeral service to get incontact with the widow or
widower, get a little moreinformation, and then they'll
even attend the funeral serviceto get in contact with the widow
or widower, get a little moreinformation and then they'll
contact them, posing as saidfuneral home, saying, hey, you
(07:10):
have an outstanding balance fromso-and-so's funeral.
You need to pay this or there'sgoing to be consequences.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So really they're just playing on the grief and
the crisis moments for people.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, the key is basically that vulnerability
aspect of some of the elderlypopulation of they're trusting.
They don't have a whole lot ofknowledge, they're not
technology savvy or they'relonely, just things like.
That is why the elderlypopulation are so at risk for
being a victim of fraud.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And I don't think that they're not used to the
tech that they now have.
Putting a smartphone in mymom's hand, I love her to death
and I love the fact that I canget a hold of her and chat with
her whenever, but she doesn'tunderstand even the basics of
teaching Facebook to the oldergeneration.
(08:02):
Hey, mom, did you know you'renot just talking to me, like
everybody on my Facebook can seewhat you just said?
No, no, I sent that just to you.
No, ma'am, you did not.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, and that's unfortunately, is a big aspect
of there is a lack ofunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Social media aspect is forever changing, so correct.
Even in the criminalinvestigation division I'm the
youngest by like a decade, sothere are a lot of social media
platforms that they'll the otherdetectives will get cases on
and they'll be like hey, morewhat is this?
And I'm like, oh well, is thisor it's something that I've
never even heard of, becauseI've got like the basics, the,
(08:38):
the core, like instagram so whatyou're telling me is that they
just didn't stop making socialmedia platforms when I was
getting into it.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So there's more out there I've never seen.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Oh yeah, there's a lot more Like.
We'll get cases like oh yeah, Iwas texting so-and-so on this
app and I'm like what app isthat?
So even sometimes the youngergenerations will have to really
break it down for us.
I'm like I swear that I am notintellectually challenged.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I promise you, but I need to understand what in the
world that is and why they'dswitch to it.
Yes, that's what concerns me iswhy are you hopping apps to
communicate?
Children are sneaky.
They are.
I've raised three of them, Iknow all about it.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Oh yeah, and I think I am the age of some of your
children and so probably I amthe generation of sneaky
children, so I know about it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I yeah, and I think I am the age of some of your
children and so probably I amthe generation of sneaky
children, so I know about it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I didn't have as many apps like my parents growing up
.
They turned the internet off at10.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
They're like no no funny business.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
But with that older generation, thankfully we don't
have to worry about them likeping pong into different apps
trying to be sneaky.
They use those core of like,even the dating websites, the
matchcom and all these like thestandard whatever's.
So we don't have to worry aboutsome random websites.
We've got no earthly idea whatthey are.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It's crazy it is.
It is really crazy.
I had a conversation with chiefand Steve Krokoff pretty early
on in the podcast talking aboutthese different apps and how it
affects people.
I've had issues.
We came across a few thingswith my kids that caused serious
(10:14):
damage.
I mean as far as reputation,mentally, all those things.
There was one called Yik Yak.
Remember Yik Yak?
I don't even know if it's stillaround or not, but awful.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, my brother.
He went to Georgia Tech andhe's my older brother and so Yik
Yak was really big on thatcampus and I never heard of it
until then.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, yeah, just a anonymous way to connect with
those in your for whateverreason you're looking for,
usually the reasons were notpositive.
Yeah, a lot of the times.
What people, little key pointis you think you're looking for?
Usually the reasons were notpositive, yeah, a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
What people little.
Key point is you think you'reanonymous.
You're not.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I send some documentation.
I can get your IP address.
I can get your address name,date of birth.
I had a case recently of overSnapchat.
Somebody was threateninganother kid over Snapchat.
Well, I called his mama, whowas at work, and he got pulled
out of school and we had aconversation.
You may hide under a usernameor unanimous one, two, three,
(11:12):
four, dash, five, whatever Right, it's not.
Stuff on the internet stays onthe internet forever.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Ever.
Yep, and trying to explain thatespecially to the older
generation.
Yes, that, that is what'shappening.
They don't get it.
They don't get it.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And even, like sometimes, I'll explain to my
parents they're not oldaccording to the age of elderly,
according to the FBI.
I'm not calling anybody old,for the record.
The FBI.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I won't be offended.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
You can blame the FBI .
They say anybody from 16 up isconsidered elderly and so my
parents are getting close tothat and I'll be like oh yeah, I
did whatever, whatever on thisapp.
They're like you did what I'mlike.
All right, we'll break it downstep by step by step, or my mom
for the longest time didn'trealize there's a new feature on
(12:00):
social media where if you postto Instagram, it'll
automatically upload it toFacebook.
Correct, and she was going on arant saying Facebook is doing
this.
Then I'm like well, mom, you'redoing that.
Let me just turn that settingoff for you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Thank you Right, we can, we can stop some of that.
Yeah, I had the same issue withmy mom, but here's one.
And tell me, if you guys havecome across this, this and this
is what I fear for my parents,or anybody's parents for that
matter.
The AI generated voices thatcall I'm in trouble, I'm in
trouble, mama, mama, screaming,crying you know and identifying
(12:36):
that Steve Krokoff says well,you just unlocked a new fear for
me, but it's happening a lot ofthe like.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
We're not hearing the AI, a lot of criminals.
I'm not going to give them thebenefit of the doubt.
They're not that smart.
They use their actual voices.
They'll use like a changer,that kind of changes the tone or
the pitch but, we haven't seenactual, just straight up.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
AI voices.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
As technology progresses, AI is getting more
and more involved andincorporated in all of our cases
.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
more and more involved and incorporated in all
of our cases.
Yep, yep, it's scary, it'sreally scary.
So, as we're talking about allthese types of elder fraud, give
us the warning signs.
What should people be lookingfor, I mean, when they're
getting these?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
texts or these emails or these calls help us out here
.
So if you see, if you get anemail, a text or anything like
that and it has a link, don'tclick on it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I would just avoid it at all costs.
Just don't click on it becauseyou never know, it could look
official.
But if you start looking intothe nitty-gritty of hey, this
email address, it has ChaseBank's name in it, right, and
then it's got this weird littleasterisk or something like that.
Okay, that's kind of fake.
A lot of scams recently justacross the general population
are the toll scams.
(13:48):
They're getting the textmessages saying hey, your car
passed a toll and you need topay this thing.
I got one yesterday.
I get them on my work phone soI send the phone number a
picture of my badge and I waslike nice, try and I block it.
Um, so I don't click on thelinks.
That's amazing.
Um, I find it comical becauseit's my work phone.
I was like people will call andtry and scam me on said work
phone and I answer I'm likehello, this is Detective Moore
(14:09):
with the City of Milton PlaceDepartment Criminal
Investigation Division and theystill try and scam me.
I'm like really.
No, thank you, Rude.
But just don't click on anylinks.
And if you do answer the phoneand someone's like, hey, you
missed jury duty, that's false.
If you ever question someone'sidentity, if they're saying that
they're law enforcement oranything like that I've had a
(14:30):
lot of times I don't blame them.
They hang up on me because Ikind of sound like sweet little
southern voice.
I've heard my voicemail.
It sounds fake.
I can't, no matter how hard Itried, it just doesn't sound
real.
But I I was like, if you haveany questions, you can look me
up on the City of Milton'swebsite.
You can find my picture.
You can call the AlpharettaMilton Dispatch and they'll
(14:51):
patch you back through to mydesk phone, which is set number,
but you can always verify itthat way.
Other than that, if you're like, oh, this is weird, hang up.
Yeah, just hang up, yeah, justhang up, don't answer it.
And if anything, if they'reasking for payment in any type
of gift card, straight up scam.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's what baffles me the age that I am and all the
red flags that are up there topay a court with gift cards.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Hmm, yeah, a lot of it is part of the fear factor,
of they're saying you're goingto be arrested, you're going to
be prosecuted, you're going tobe deported.
Especially in today's climate,that is a big fear for some
people.
Sure, of course it is.
And so they use that fear andthat vulnerability and they go
after it.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Wow, that's crazy.
I don't know how we got here.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I don't either.
I don't know, so give us somestatistics.
I know you've got a wealth ofinformation over there, so give
us some statistics that we knowwhat we're looking at.
So, unfortunately, the 2024statistics, they haven't come
out yet, so I've got some olderstatistics from 2023.
In terms of elder fraud, fbithey have got like a complaint
database, the FBI.
(16:00):
They don't necessarily likeinvestigate these complaints,
but they compile it forstatistics.
In 2023, elder fraud increasedby 14%.
So in terms of, like We'll say,anybody from the ages of 60 and
older, approximately $3.4million were stolen due to fraud
in elderly victims.
(16:21):
On average, the victim of elderfraud lost approximately $33,000
in 2023.
The average.
That is the average, and thereare some cases where it could be
anywhere from like $50 and theycaught on to it.
Or, unfortunately, I had a caseearly on in my career where an
individual, his retirementalmost like $4 million, was just
(16:46):
gone.
It just breaks my heart andunfortunately, in a lot of these
cases where it is financial,that money, they're not going to
get it back.
I was going to ask you what arethe chances that any of this is
recovered more than likely itwill not be recovered, because
once the money's taken, it'sgone, it's no way to trace it
different bacon cows all acrossthe world because a lot of the
(17:07):
times with our scams we'refinding that their ip addresses
are in nigeria, they're in china, so they're well outside of our
jurisdiction of the UnitedStates of being able to
prosecute even these crimes.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Like a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
like I've identified the exact individual, I know
what neighborhood or what areain Nigeria he is.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Can't do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I can't, and the only way that they could potentially
get their money back is if ajudge were to order restitution.
But if we can't bring them tothe United States for like a
thousand dollar fraud case,Right.
So we do like to preface thatright off the bat, of like,
unless your bank is willing towork with you or something along
those lines, the anything thatwe do in this case will not get
(17:50):
you your money back for the mostpart.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So you need to be prepared for that.
That should be a big motivatorto start paying a little bit
more attention, because I feellike the banks and chief
mentioned this as well that thebanks have gotten so good at
identifying fraudulent attemptsand bank accounts and stuff that
a lot of us have relaxed alittle bit on our vigilance.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yes, and we do get reports from different banking
institutions saying, hey,there's something hinky with
this elderly couple's account.
This is what the charge thatwe're kind of thinking is kind
of weird.
Can you take a look at it?
We'll call them Obviously a lotof times I think we're scammers
.
I completely understand.
You can even come to thedepartment.
You can see me face to faceRight.
A lot of the times it's like,oh no, I ordered my grandson.
A lot of the times it's like,oh no, I ordered my grandson,
(18:35):
those Jordans.
It's like, okay, that's fine, Ijust wanted to make sure have a
great day.
A lot of the times they're likeI have no idea what you're
talking about.
It's like, okay, we'll go fromthere.
And a lot of the times withbanking institutions, if you're
not checking your credit Right,I was a victim of identity fraud
.
Back realized I was like well,I did not sign up for a Lowe's
(18:56):
or Sephora gift card.
So when you realize that you'rea victim of a scam, there's
like a series of things that youneed to do in order to protect
yourself in the long run.
Me I didn't follow my own advice.
I didn't have my credit frozen.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So ever since then, on all three Credit Experian,
equififax and TransUnion it'sfrozen.
So I don't know who would wantto be me but they can't do it
anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I think about that a lot, especially with my kids
coming up.
How are they going to protectthemselves?
What can we do?
My husband's very good atwatching things and so if I
spend anything, my husband'sright there going.
Spend anything, my husband'sright there going.
Hey, were you just at Kroger?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Um, yeah yeah, I, I went and got lunch, he goes.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, I'm just checking, I just got to watch
this stuff and I'm I'mappreciative of that, but work
has taught me a lot about linksI have.
I'm not going to lie, it'sembarrassing.
I am a person who understandsand knows to look at the email
addresses, but they catch me atthe most inopportune times, when
(20:05):
I'm in a hurry or it justhappens to be something that I
think I should know about and Idon't, and I'm like, oh my
goodness, and I click the linkand then I end up in training
again.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, so even people, even us.
I will admit I have clicked onone of those gosh darn links
because it looked so real and Iwasn't paying attention.
It was from somebody important.
So I'm like multitasking and Ilook at it and I'm like awesome,
I have to train that trainingagain, oops.
I was like it's basically likehi, gotcha, you failed.
And it's like gosh, darn it,Dang it, Ashley.
(20:33):
Everybody has fallen for it onevery scale of education and
it's really just if you see alink and it is, you're kind of
weary on whether to trust her ornot don't click on it.
If you get a text from yourbank or a phone call from your
bank saying hey, we've seenfraudulent account, just hang up
the phone, look at that textmessage, log into your bank
(20:55):
account in UC.
Cause I've gotten those callsfrom on my personal cell phone
Like hey, somebody's trying todo whatever on your bank account
.
I was like, all right, so I'velogged into my bank account.
I don't see it, it's not there.
So I call a branch directly.
It's like okay, I got thisphone call.
I've checked.
I just want to verify with youguys that that was a scam.
They're like, yeah, that was ascam, we wouldn't call you and I
was like, okay, well, I justwant to verify.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Well, and that's good .
Because then now we're gettinginto a time where, when you're
trying to log into certainaccounts, they've got so many
authenticator processes andthey're like can you give me
your phone number and youraddress?
And I'm like, oh yeah, I reallydon't want to.
Well, I need to authenticateyour account and it's actually
(21:36):
valid, right?
Or the ones that still ask foryour social security number.
I'm like, ooh, I might have tocall you back because I don't
trust you.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah and anything.
If you get a phone call andthey're claiming whether it is
the financial or if it's likethe IRS, we've gotten that as
well or social security, likeokay, we need your information
over the phone.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
IRS isn't going to call you.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
No, we did have an unfortunate case where an
individual they fully believedit was the IRS and they lost a
fair amount of money in giftcards.
They are very big in gift cardsbecause as soon as that money's
gone, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
There's no way to trace it, right?
No, I get it, because that'swhat they're after.
Is that low traceability factor, right?
Darn gift cards and, if I'mcorrect, you all have actually
gone to merchants in differentstorefronts and educated the
store clerks and managers andstuff.
If somebody's coming in askingfor $1,000 in gift cards, that
(22:34):
should be something you shouldpay attention to.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yes, and there was at one point when I was on patrol
and I was standing there, I wasgetting me a little snacky snack
from Target, asking for $1,000in gift cards.
Yes, that should be somethingyou should pay attention to.
Yes, and there was at one pointwhen I was on patrol and I was
standing there, I was getting mea little snacky snack from
Target and I see this sweetlittle meemaw.
She's at a checkout and she'sgot a stack of gift cards.
I'm like either she's got 30grandchildren and there's some
type of family reunion orsomething's going on.
(22:56):
Right, so I went and I talked tothe manager.
I was like how long has shebeen here and how often has she
been here?
And they're like, oh, this isher second time today.
And I was like, all right, so Ipulled her aside and I talked
to her and I was like this isthe reason why I'm talking to
you.
I'm a little concerned.
She explained it to me.
I was like you need to go toyour local police department and
you need to report it.
Any gift cards that you have.
(23:18):
What they usually do is theywant you to send a picture of
the back with the informationscratched off.
Don't send any of those, anygift cards that you have right
now that you've alreadypurchased.
Go speak with customer serviceand see if they can refund it.
Or you just have gift cards now.
A lot of them, yeah, a lot ofthem.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
It's just very unfortunate.
It breaks my heart, it's alittle scary, but it's
definitely something that we allneed to be processing.
If you see something, saysomething.
Yeah, yes, that goes foreverybody, not just Detective
Moore walking through Targetgetting a snacky snack, right.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yes, and we have had cases of where a manager, an
employee, will pull us aside ifwe're just walking.
They're like, hey, this personhas been trying to, whether it's
a scammer using like 15different gift cards, or it's
somebody buying a bunch of giftcards like hey, this is kind of
weird, just wanted to let youknow like awesome, thank you so
much, and 99 of the time it's acase for us and we'll work it
(24:16):
from there yeah, wow, crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So how do we protect ourselves?
What do?
What do we do aside from hypervigilance on the links and
whatnot?
What else can we do?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
in order in terms of like, say, if you do, if you get
off the phone like you knowwhat?
I just gave them my date ofbirth and my social security
number.
I probably shouldn't have donethat.
Freeze your credit.
Yeah, congratulations.
You've got my social securitynumber.
You can probably not really domuch with it.
You can't get a credit card.
You can't get a loan, you can'treally do much with that.
If you're not technology savvy.
(24:51):
If there's somebody that youtrust that can help you with
those three credit bureaus,which is Experian, equifax and
TransUnion, get their help.
Get a trusted individual likehey, can you help me freeze my
credit?
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So say, you freeze your credit.
How long does it have to staythat way?
What do you do to repair it?
You're not getting a new socialsecurity number, so, or are you
?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
So that would be more of a question for Social
Security.
I know that you can reapply fora new Social Security number.
What those circumstances are,that's more of a them question
if you can get a hold of them.
But that's kind of like foryour Social Security is making
sure that your credit is safe.
Because, even when my identitywas stolen, my credit was dinged
like 200 points Yikes, and thatwas a lot.
(25:36):
It is a lot and so thankfully ifyou go on those and say your
credit's not frozen yet, so yougo through and you can report
those like hey, this is fraud,this is fraud and you do it on
all three of them.
They'll take it off your credit.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Oh, right on.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
And it's great, and so you can freeze it.
So my credit is frozen all yearround, 24 7.
It's a pain in the butt if yougot to buy a car or a house.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
I was going to say how do you manipulate that
situation?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Then you have to go back on all three and unfreeze
them.
It's a pain in the behind butin terms of your long-term
safety, for your credit, it'skind of worth it.
Even my daughter she's oneyears old.
I have her credit frozenbecause that is a scam as well.
Unfortunately, it's familymembers who are not the best of
people, or random Joe Schmoesacross the world will get that
(26:22):
Social Security number and bythe time they turn 18, they try
to get a credit card.
And it's ruined and there'sreally nothing that they can do
about it at that point, besidesjust try and work towards it,
and that's not fair to them.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And even with like a lot of with the three credit
bureaus if you say you have apower of attorney over your
elderly parent.
You can upload those documentsto those three places and say
look, I have power of attorney,I want to freeze their credit.
You can do that.
They will let you do that ontheir behalf If you show the
proper documentation saying that, hey, I'm in charge of all this
(26:57):
stuff for them and I just wantto protect them.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's a great idea.
Didn't even know you could dothat.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yes, and then there's also a few places that you can
report it.
They won't necessarilyinvestigate it, it's more for
statistics, like I had mentionedearlier you can report it to
the FBI.
In terms of social security, ifyour identity is stolen, you
can go to identitytheftgov andyou can basically say hey, this
is what happened to me, this ishow much I lost.
(27:29):
So here's my information.
Obviously, if you got burnedwith an internet scam, going on
the internet, it's not going tobe kind of a fun place, correct?
You can always, obviously, finda trusted individuals like hey,
I fell for this.
I need your help Becauseobviously the first step would
be to tell somebody.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Preferably your local law enforcement, because if you
tell your daughter or your sonor your family member like hey,
I fell victim to a scam and I'mkind of ashamed about it, like
okay, well, that's okay, mom,and they move on, a lot of it's
not reported to us at all justbecause of like, oh well, you
know, it wasn't that much money.
I'm not going to waste thedepartment's time or there's no
(28:06):
solvability factors.
They're probably across thecountry, whatever.
But in order a lot of times toget that ball rolling, to get
that stuff off your credit toyou need the police report you
need that police report,especially with the financial
institutions.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
They need that police report and aside from that,
that's really why y'all arethere is to help the public in
all these situations, which isamazing, and I give milton pd an
immense amount of credit aboutthe accessibility y'all have to
the public and very open andwilling to chat and address all
(28:42):
these issues.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
So we try and be transparent and speak with the
community, kind of like in thesesituations like this, um, doing
a podcast to kind of get thatinformation out there of like
what's possible scans, thingslike that.
We try and talk with anybody.
That's one of the things Iloved about patrol is I got to
talk to so many different peopleand they would ask me about my
job and I would get to give alittle information for them yeah
(29:05):
like oh yeah, you know how'syour day going.
Oh well, I took this report fora fraud, so you know you should
freeze your credit if you thinkabout it or do those little
tidbits the ability to do thatis amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Now on cid.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Obviously it's a little harder to do.
That is amazing.
Now on CID obviously it's alittle harder to do that.
We're kind of on that back end.
We don't get that initialcontact with those individuals,
we're just the point of contact.
To some people it's one of theworst things that's ever
happened to them, sure, andwe're their primary contact for
that, and so it's not as fun,obviously, given that type of
information like.
I'm so sorry that this hashappened to you Right.
(29:43):
Cause you get the post event andfall out a lot of the times.
There is a lot of traumaassociated with this.
Um.
One of the statistics that Igot from the national institute
of justice is that about 31percent of the victims anywhere
from like 60 or older experiencemoderate emotional distress and
about 29 percent experiencedmild and then 27 percent.
Out of all of the statistics sothat's like 2010 to like 2020.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So about 27 percent experienced severe emotional
distress there's a lot of shamein that to know that you know
you're smarter than that and youknow better, but you still fell
victim and there's a lot ofshame associated with that.
And it shouldn't be that waybecause, as we talked earlier,
(30:26):
we all kind of fall somewhere onthat.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
It happens to everybody.
I had an older family memberwho had fallen victim to it.
Even on my in-law's side theyhad fallen victim to it.
Even on my in-law's side theyhad fallen victim to it and I
didn't find out for a yearbecause they didn't want to tell
me, because they know that I'min law enforcement and they felt
embarrassed.
But you're the one they shouldtell you would think that, but
because I deal with this everyday and I've told them about it.
(30:52):
They were so embarrassed.
And they didn't want to talkabout it, they didn't want me to
know.
But at the end of the day,whether it's, all I can offer
you are words of encouragementor just you know, I'm really
sorry this happened to you.
If you just want to talk aboutit, like I may not be able to do
anything for you, like say thiscase isn't in my jurisdiction,
I will help lead you in theright way.
You want to have a conversationabout it?
(31:13):
You don't have anybody to talkto?
Well, I'm free for the nextfive minutes.
You want to have a conversationabout kind of what you're
feeling?
Cause, at the end of the day,we're here for the public.
So if you need that shoulder tocry on for a minute or two, I'm
here for you.
You need some advice?
I'm here for you, and that'skind of what we try and do.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Absolutely and I can appreciate that and I love that.
Everybody that I've talked tothrough PD I've only been here
since July.
I think I say that in everypodcast so all the listeners
know how long I've been here.
Sorry, but you all have been soopen about that and I feel like
the perception of police andeverything is people are
(31:53):
generally, you know they avoidgoing to the police station.
I know I grew up thinking thatthat was the last place I should
be and for a lot of reasons Ifollowed that and I never ended
up in a police station for thewrong reasons.
The good news is that it's agreat place and a great resource
for things that are happeningin your community, for questions
(32:14):
that you have regarded tosafety, or if you see something
or if you're worried aboutsomething.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Y'all are a fabulous resource for that oh yeah,
whether that's either going tothe actually going inside our
department and you want to talkto somebody, awesome, an officer
will be dispatched to you.
If you have some genericquestions, maybe one of the nice
ladies at the front they cananswer those questions they're
lovely they are so nice they'remy favorite.
Yep, I go say hi to them everymorning.
Um, or it's whether you want totalk with an officer on the
(32:41):
phone.
You call the non-emergencynumber.
An officer will call you.
Or if you want to talk to adetective, they'll let us know
and we'll, we'll talk to you,we'll kind of answer those
questions.
You'd go on the city's websiteand you can like submit a little
response.
Yep, um, a feature thatsometimes we didn't even know
was possible, because I got anemail from the city's website
and I was like that seems like ascam it wasn't I verified it
(33:03):
through the chain of command.
It was not a scam.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
It looked a little sketchy I never got one of these
before well, I never knew itwas a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It was like a year after I had became a detective
and I was like I've never gottenthis, this seems.
So I reported it as a phishingalert and it came back and I was
like no, it's not phishing.
I was like oh, oh, good Okay.
Okay, well then I'll moveforward from there.
But you can even, you know, askquestions or anything like that
on the city's website email allof our contact information, all
(33:30):
the detectives.
Our emails are out there.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Our desk phones are out there on the website, shoot
us an email, any questions,phone call in person.
We're here to answer thosequestions for you, sure?
So, as we're talking aboutcontact information and where to
find it, number one, the citywebsite is wwwmiltongagov.
Head on over to the policesection and you can click there
and you'll find all theinformation detective moore was
just referring to.
For ease and convenience, doyou want to share any of those
(34:01):
numbers, your email or the bestnumber for people to contact if
they've been a victim or theyknow somebody who has been a
victim of one of these crimes?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
So if we're talking about somebody who has been
victimized and they haven'treported it, the best place to
go because if you call my deskphone I'll be like I'm so sorry
that this has happened to you,but we kind of need to go
through the proper channels.
And you know an initial reportneeds to be done.
They'll get all thatinformation and I'll work the
back end and I'll start sendingout my subpoenas and things like
that.
So the best, like first step,is to call that Alpharetta
(34:30):
Milton non-emergency number andwhat's that it?
is 678-297-6314.
And even if you GoogleAlpharetta Dispatch we do share,
because that's our sisteragency is Alpharetta, we share a
dispatch center, so it'll justsay Alpharetta it's still us
Gotcha Because they'll answerthe phone and say Alpharetta,
(34:51):
Milton and Fire.
But if you think somebody hasbeen victimized of fraud or you
are yourself a victim of fraud,contact your local police
department first and foremost.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Then you can go through the steps of.
A lot of times the officerswill tell you is like OK, well,
have you called your bank?
No, ok, go ahead and start thatfraud case with your bank.
Have you frozen your credit?
Have you checked your credit?
Things like that.
And if they aren't supertechnology savvy, a lot of times
we might ask, hey, do you havesomebody who that you trust,
(35:23):
that we can call on your behalfand see if they can help you get
this information?
Like, hey, I'm the officer, I'mthe detective over your mom's
case.
This is the information that Ineed.
Can you help her get that, orcan you help?
her do that.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And those are kind of the steps for that.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
That's awesome.
I love that.
As we're wrapping this up, isthere anything else you want to
share with everybody regardingthis that they really need to
know and pay attention to?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
If they're asking for gift cards, it's a scam.
If they're calling you sayingyou missed jury duty, you have a
warrant or anything like that,95% of the time it is a scam.
Hang up the phone, Anythinglike that, the IRS.
They will not call you.
The Social Security office theywill not call you.
95% of the time, the banks willnot call you.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
The toll roads aren't even going to call you.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
No, A lot of people are like, oh my goodness, I was
on vacation recently.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
It's called phishing.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
for a reason they are literally phishing, but it's
P-H, not F.
They are phishing for thatinformation, to find somebody
who is vulnerable enough toclick on that link, to call them
back, to do any of this inorder to get that money, because
, at the end of the day, that'sall they want.
They want your information orthey want your money.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
But those are the kind of things, the main things
to look out for.
Be weary of anything on theInternet.
Just because it's on theInternet doesn't mean it's true.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Really.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I didn't know that one it's so shocking.
I know I could go right now andcreate a Wikipedia document
about random stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Totally editable.
Anybody can edit thoseWikipedia Kids in college.
Do not use that as one of yourresources.
It is not a valid resource.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I'm just saying, or if you haven't figured that out
by now and you're in college, goahead and use it, feel free.
You will get that grade thatyou deserve, the grade that you
deserve.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
That's funny, yeah, the grade you deserve.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, just be weary of everything on the internet.
Any phone calls that's callingyou about IT bank or anything
like that hang up.
The best case if you are able,go to your local financial
institution branch.
Go there, talk to them about it.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Or talk to a trusted person in your family so that
they can help you through thatprocess.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Don't click on links.
Don't click on links.
That is going to be the name ofthis podcast.
Don't click on links.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Even if you Google a lot of websites, you can still
fall victim to that If you don'tknow the website and it's not
verified, because what they dois they can mirror a website, a
very legitimate website, thesame URL and everything, but
it's a scam.
So you have to be very vigilant.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
And Facebook messages , the DMs, coming through all
the platforms.
If you coming through all theplatforms, don't talk to them.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Stranger danger is real.
Do not talk to strangers on theinternet.
They could be weirdos.
Face-to-face interactions, forthe most part, are always best.
Obviously there are somerestraints and you know driving
and things like that, sure, butjust don't have so much trust in
(38:20):
everybody, yeah.
It's terrible to say, but inthis day and age you can't trust
everybody.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Nope, you can't.
I always said I should havegrown up in the 50s.
Believe it or not, that wasbefore my time.
I mean, I always joke about howold I am, but the 50s were
before my time and I'm talkingabout the 1950s, not the 1850s.
So just for clarification.
So, detective Moore, thank youso much for being here today.
I think this is such importantinformation that needs to be
(38:48):
talked about because, as yousaid, people are embarrassed
because they've they've trustedthe wrong person, and if you
have any questions or anythinglike that, please be sure to
head over to the website.
You can use that as your portalto ask these questions.
Somebody will help you.
Rpd is amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Well, we appreciate it and thank you so much for
having me so I can have theopportunity to kind of get some
of this information out there on.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Anytime, and anytime you got another message you want
to share regarding somethingthat you're seeing in the
community, give me a shout,We'll throw you back on here and
we'll we'll push out theinformation that people need to
hear.
So that's the purpose of this.
Appreciate you being here.
Everybody, Thank you forjoining me for this episode of
Milton and Maine.
I hope you learned something,Hope you got some insight into
(39:35):
what is going on out there tokeep yourself and your loved
ones safe.
Until next time, stay safe,stay curious.
Thanks for listening to Miltonand Maine.
We hope this episode gave youfresh insights into what makes
our city so special.
Stay connected and don't missan episode by subscribing to
this podcast on your favoriteplatform and following us on
(39:57):
social media for all updates.
And, of course, if you want tolearn more about the city, visit
us online at wwwmiltongagov forresources, news and upcoming
events.
Until next time.
Thanks for being part of theconversation and we'll see you
on the next Milton and Maine.
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for
the city of Milton.
We want to bring you closer tothe heart of our community
through stories that inform,inspire and connect.
Each episode offers abehind-the-scenes look at the
people, projects and prioritiesshaping Milton, covering
everything from local governmentand future development to arts,
culture, sustainability andpublic safety.
(00:28):
Whether you're a resident, alocal business owner or just
curious about our city, this isyour front row seat to what
makes Milton special.
Welcome back to another episodeof Milton in Maine.
I'm your host, christy Weeks,the communications manager for
the city of Milton.
Listen, today's conversation isone of those that hits close to
home for many families in ourcommunity.
We're joined by Detective SarahMoore, with the Milton Police
(00:49):
Department, who brings bothexperience and insight to an
issue affecting countless olderadults elder fraud, from phone
scans to online schemes,financial exploitation targeting
seniors is on the rise andoften goes unnoticed until it's
too late.
In this episode, we'll talkthrough how these scams work,
the red flags to watch for andhow you can protect not only
(01:12):
yourself but your loved ones too.
So let's get right into it.
Welcome, detective Marr.
Appreciate you being here.
Hi, thank you so much forhaving me Before we get into the
nuts and bolts of this wholething, why don't you give us a
little background as to how yougot into law enforcement when
you came to Milton and yourhistory as a detective?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So from a young age I kind of realized that I wanted
to do something to help otherpeople.
At first my parents were notkeen on me being in law
enforcement, so I was like, okay, I'll help people with being a
nurse.
I got to college.
My freshman year I took anatomyand I realized I don't care how
many bones you have.
It was not my favorite.
So then I switched my major tocriminal justice, because at
(01:52):
that time I was still in myteens and I was like you know,
what?
I'm basically an adult.
I can do what I want.
I'll do law enforcement.
I graduated there with mybachelor's in criminal justice
concentration forensics.
During my first semester of mymaster's degree I was still up
in Dahlonega at University ofNorth Georgia running track.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh, my son went up there.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I love it.
Cybersecurity that sounds fun,but I ran track for their
women's track team and duringall of the COVID they canceled
our championships.
I was like you know what?
I'll go to the police academynow.
So I went to the academy in2020, and I've been with Milton
ever since I moved into thecriminal investigations division
about two years ago.
Yeah, but before that I hadthree years on patrol.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow, do you miss patrol?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I do.
I had a lot of fun.
I got to talk to a lot ofdifferent people do a lot of
different things.
It was just something new everyday I'd go to a lot of
different people do a lot ofdifferent things.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It was just something new every day.
Yeah, that's what OfficerTidwell said I asked her if she
misses it, she goes.
Yeah, the community outreach iskind of where my heart is.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, the schedule obviously is a little better in
terms of the family dynamic, butpatrol is, I feel like, for a
lot of us that aren't on patrolanymore that's kind of where our
career started and where ourlove grew.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sure, so it was always fun, but I do love what I
do right now.
I love that, and it's alwaysgood to hear the journey through
college.
Everybody thinks they start outdoing one thing and then
realize that their heart liessomeplace else.
So, as we talk about this.
This is something that thistopic is something that really
concerns me, because my parentsare older.
My dad, I don't worry about somuch, he's not much of a tech
guy.
He doesn't get into the socialmedia, he's not on the Internet
(03:34):
much.
My mom, on the other hand, ifthere is a link to click
girlfriend will click it.
She just it doesn't occur toher that it could be something
nefarious or she falls victim toa lot of the plots and schemes
and whatnot.
So give us the skinny on whatyou're seeing the most of and
(03:59):
some of the big ones that areout right now.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Unfortunately, there are a lot of different types of
the elder community that are outright now.
Unfortunately, there are a lotof different types.
The elder community.
They are more vulnerablebecause they're more trusting of
others.
They're like you know, what thisperson's saying, who they are.
I'm going to believe them,because why would they lie to me
, right?
Unfortunately, not a lot ofpeople are very nice, so a lot
of the scams right now thatwe're seeing are kind of like
(04:22):
romance scams Somebody that'sseeking companionship and we see
this a lot in the elderly, butwe also see it in the younger
generations as well.
They're seeking companionship,but what they don't know is it
is some Joe Smoe in India justwanting their money, right, and
that's unfortunate becausethey're really just wanting that
companionship and that can bedone, whether that's social
media, you know, text messagingapps like WhatsApp and just
(04:46):
various sites that they can fallvictim to.
Another one is, if they're on,like their phones or computers,
is the tech support scams of,where somebody will generate a
little pop up like hey, you know, you're having a technical
issue, call this number and I'llhelp you.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So they'll call the number and thinking, oh my
goodness, crashing like I don'tknow what to do, I don't know
who to call.
They call that number.
That person will then getremote access to the computer.
Then they have access toeverything they've got passwords
, usernames, data burst, socialsecurities, financial and all
these other things.
Another type that's unfortunateare grandparent scams of, where
(05:26):
they get a text or a phone callor an email, social media,
saying hey, you know this is soand so you know like I'm really
strapped for cash.
Can you please send me somemoney?
Or you know, I've been arrestedand I need bail, anything like
that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And they're pretending to be a grandkid or a
member of the family.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It could be little.
Jimmy got arrested forsomething and he needs bail from
Meemaw or Peepaw and they wantto help because they're very
trusting.
Another one that we've beenseeing a lot lately is people
missing jury duty.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
If you miss jury duty .
Speaker 2 (06:00):
They will not call you and say that you need to pay
these in iTunes gift cards.
Right, we have.
It's somewhat comical on ourend because some people will
pose as us with our actual namesfrom our department, but
they'll get the rank wrong,saying I got called by.
We'll just use my name, forexample, like Captain Moore.
I'm like awesome, I got apromotion, sweet, good to know,
(06:21):
thanks.
And they'll say, well, well,you missed jury duty and you
need to pay this fine.
And a lot of the times thesescammers will say I'll meet you
in the police department, likeparking lot, we're like, would
they actually show up?
But a lot of the times isthey'll ask for a gift card and
you'll send them a text or anemail and then they'll take the
money out of that gift card.
One that's not super common,but I have seen it a few times,
(06:44):
are the funeral home andobituary scams.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Oh, I haven't heard of this one.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It's a little diabolical.
Basically, these scammers willgo scour the internet for
obituaries, figuring out who theperson is that passed away,
their family, where they wereburied, or they'll even attend
the funeral service to get incontact with the widow or
widower, get a little moreinformation, and then they'll
even attend the funeral serviceto get in contact with the widow
or widower, get a little moreinformation and then they'll
contact them, posing as saidfuneral home, saying, hey, you
(07:10):
have an outstanding balance fromso-and-so's funeral.
You need to pay this or there'sgoing to be consequences.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So really they're just playing on the grief and
the crisis moments for people.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, the key is basically that vulnerability
aspect of some of the elderlypopulation of they're trusting.
They don't have a whole lot ofknowledge, they're not
technology savvy or they'relonely, just things like.
That is why the elderlypopulation are so at risk for
being a victim of fraud.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And I don't think that they're not used to the
tech that they now have.
Putting a smartphone in mymom's hand, I love her to death
and I love the fact that I canget a hold of her and chat with
her whenever, but she doesn'tunderstand even the basics of
teaching Facebook to the oldergeneration.
(08:02):
Hey, mom, did you know you'renot just talking to me, like
everybody on my Facebook can seewhat you just said?
No, no, I sent that just to you.
No, ma'am, you did not.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, and that's unfortunately, is a big aspect
of there is a lack ofunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Social media aspect is forever changing, so correct.
Even in the criminalinvestigation division I'm the
youngest by like a decade, sothere are a lot of social media
platforms that they'll the otherdetectives will get cases on
and they'll be like hey, morewhat is this?
And I'm like, oh well, is thisor it's something that I've
never even heard of, becauseI've got like the basics, the,
(08:38):
the core, like instagram so whatyou're telling me is that they
just didn't stop making socialmedia platforms when I was
getting into it.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So there's more out there I've never seen.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Oh yeah, there's a lot more Like.
We'll get cases like oh yeah, Iwas texting so-and-so on this
app and I'm like what app isthat?
So even sometimes the youngergenerations will have to really
break it down for us.
I'm like I swear that I am notintellectually challenged.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I promise you, but I need to understand what in the
world that is and why they'dswitch to it.
Yes, that's what concerns me iswhy are you hopping apps to
communicate?
Children are sneaky.
They are.
I've raised three of them, Iknow all about it.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Oh yeah, and I think I am the age of some of your
children and so probably I amthe generation of sneaky
children, so I know about it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I yeah, and I think I am the age of some of your
children and so probably I amthe generation of sneaky
children, so I know about it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I didn't have as many apps like my parents growing up
.
They turned the internet off at10.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
They're like no no funny business.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
But with that older generation, thankfully we don't
have to worry about them likeping pong into different apps
trying to be sneaky.
They use those core of like,even the dating websites, the
matchcom and all these like thestandard whatever's.
So we don't have to worry aboutsome random websites.
We've got no earthly idea whatthey are.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It's crazy it is.
It is really crazy.
I had a conversation with chiefand Steve Krokoff pretty early
on in the podcast talking aboutthese different apps and how it
affects people.
I've had issues.
We came across a few thingswith my kids that caused serious
(10:14):
damage.
I mean as far as reputation,mentally, all those things.
There was one called Yik Yak.
Remember Yik Yak?
I don't even know if it's stillaround or not, but awful.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, my brother.
He went to Georgia Tech andhe's my older brother and so Yik
Yak was really big on thatcampus and I never heard of it
until then.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, yeah, just a anonymous way to connect with
those in your for whateverreason you're looking for,
usually the reasons were notpositive.
Yeah, a lot of the times.
What people, little key pointis you think you're looking for?
Usually the reasons were notpositive, yeah, a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
What people little.
Key point is you think you'reanonymous.
You're not.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I send some documentation.
I can get your IP address.
I can get your address name,date of birth.
I had a case recently of overSnapchat.
Somebody was threateninganother kid over Snapchat.
Well, I called his mama, whowas at work, and he got pulled
out of school and we had aconversation.
You may hide under a usernameor unanimous one, two, three,
(11:12):
four, dash, five, whatever Right, it's not.
Stuff on the internet stays onthe internet forever.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Ever.
Yep, and trying to explain thatespecially to the older
generation.
Yes, that, that is what'shappening.
They don't get it.
They don't get it.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And even, like sometimes, I'll explain to my
parents they're not oldaccording to the age of elderly,
according to the FBI.
I'm not calling anybody old,for the record.
The FBI.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I won't be offended.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
You can blame the FBI .
They say anybody from 16 up isconsidered elderly and so my
parents are getting close tothat and I'll be like oh yeah, I
did whatever, whatever on thisapp.
They're like you did what I'mlike.
All right, we'll break it downstep by step by step, or my mom
for the longest time didn'trealize there's a new feature on
(12:00):
social media where if you postto Instagram, it'll
automatically upload it toFacebook.
Correct, and she was going on arant saying Facebook is doing
this.
Then I'm like well, mom, you'redoing that.
Let me just turn that settingoff for you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Thank you Right, we can, we can stop some of that.
Yeah, I had the same issue withmy mom, but here's one.
And tell me, if you guys havecome across this, this and this
is what I fear for my parents,or anybody's parents for that
matter.
The AI generated voices thatcall I'm in trouble, I'm in
trouble, mama, mama, screaming,crying you know and identifying
(12:36):
that Steve Krokoff says well,you just unlocked a new fear for
me, but it's happening a lot ofthe like.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
We're not hearing the AI, a lot of criminals.
I'm not going to give them thebenefit of the doubt.
They're not that smart.
They use their actual voices.
They'll use like a changer,that kind of changes the tone or
the pitch but, we haven't seenactual, just straight up.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
AI voices.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
As technology progresses, AI is getting more
and more involved andincorporated in all of our cases
.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
more and more involved and incorporated in all
of our cases.
Yep, yep, it's scary, it'sreally scary.
So, as we're talking about allthese types of elder fraud, give
us the warning signs.
What should people be lookingfor, I mean, when they're
getting these?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
texts or these emails or these calls help us out here
.
So if you see, if you get anemail, a text or anything like
that and it has a link, don'tclick on it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I would just avoid it at all costs.
Just don't click on it becauseyou never know, it could look
official.
But if you start looking intothe nitty-gritty of hey, this
email address, it has ChaseBank's name in it, right, and
then it's got this weird littleasterisk or something like that.
Okay, that's kind of fake.
A lot of scams recently justacross the general population
are the toll scams.
(13:48):
They're getting the textmessages saying hey, your car
passed a toll and you need topay this thing.
I got one yesterday.
I get them on my work phone soI send the phone number a
picture of my badge and I waslike nice, try and I block it.
Um, so I don't click on thelinks.
That's amazing.
Um, I find it comical becauseit's my work phone.
I was like people will call andtry and scam me on said work
phone and I answer I'm likehello, this is Detective Moore
(14:09):
with the City of Milton PlaceDepartment Criminal
Investigation Division and theystill try and scam me.
I'm like really.
No, thank you, Rude.
But just don't click on anylinks.
And if you do answer the phoneand someone's like, hey, you
missed jury duty, that's false.
If you ever question someone'sidentity, if they're saying that
they're law enforcement oranything like that I've had a
(14:30):
lot of times I don't blame them.
They hang up on me because Ikind of sound like sweet little
southern voice.
I've heard my voicemail.
It sounds fake.
I can't, no matter how hard Itried, it just doesn't sound
real.
But I I was like, if you haveany questions, you can look me
up on the City of Milton'swebsite.
You can find my picture.
You can call the AlpharettaMilton Dispatch and they'll
(14:51):
patch you back through to mydesk phone, which is set number,
but you can always verify itthat way.
Other than that, if you're like, oh, this is weird, hang up.
Yeah, just hang up, yeah, justhang up, don't answer it.
And if anything, if they'reasking for payment in any type
of gift card, straight up scam.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's what baffles me the age that I am and all the
red flags that are up there topay a court with gift cards.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Hmm, yeah, a lot of it is part of the fear factor,
of they're saying you're goingto be arrested, you're going to
be prosecuted, you're going tobe deported.
Especially in today's climate,that is a big fear for some
people.
Sure, of course it is.
And so they use that fear andthat vulnerability and they go
after it.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Wow, that's crazy.
I don't know how we got here.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I don't either.
I don't know, so give us somestatistics.
I know you've got a wealth ofinformation over there, so give
us some statistics that we knowwhat we're looking at.
So, unfortunately, the 2024statistics, they haven't come
out yet, so I've got some olderstatistics from 2023.
In terms of elder fraud, fbithey have got like a complaint
database, the FBI.
(16:00):
They don't necessarily likeinvestigate these complaints,
but they compile it forstatistics.
In 2023, elder fraud increasedby 14%.
So in terms of, like We'll say,anybody from the ages of 60 and
older, approximately $3.4million were stolen due to fraud
in elderly victims.
(16:21):
On average, the victim of elderfraud lost approximately $33,000
in 2023.
The average.
That is the average, and thereare some cases where it could be
anywhere from like $50 and theycaught on to it.
Or, unfortunately, I had a caseearly on in my career where an
individual, his retirementalmost like $4 million, was just
(16:46):
gone.
It just breaks my heart andunfortunately, in a lot of these
cases where it is financial,that money, they're not going to
get it back.
I was going to ask you what arethe chances that any of this is
recovered more than likely itwill not be recovered, because
once the money's taken, it'sgone, it's no way to trace it
different bacon cows all acrossthe world because a lot of the
(17:07):
times with our scams we'refinding that their ip addresses
are in nigeria, they're in china, so they're well outside of our
jurisdiction of the UnitedStates of being able to
prosecute even these crimes.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Like a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
like I've identified the exact individual, I know
what neighborhood or what areain Nigeria he is.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Can't do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I can't, and the only way that they could potentially
get their money back is if ajudge were to order restitution.
But if we can't bring them tothe United States for like a
thousand dollar fraud case,Right.
So we do like to preface thatright off the bat, of like,
unless your bank is willing towork with you or something along
those lines, the anything thatwe do in this case will not get
(17:50):
you your money back for the mostpart.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So you need to be prepared for that.
That should be a big motivatorto start paying a little bit
more attention, because I feellike the banks and chief
mentioned this as well that thebanks have gotten so good at
identifying fraudulent attemptsand bank accounts and stuff that
a lot of us have relaxed alittle bit on our vigilance.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yes, and we do get reports from different banking
institutions saying, hey,there's something hinky with
this elderly couple's account.
This is what the charge thatwe're kind of thinking is kind
of weird.
Can you take a look at it?
We'll call them Obviously a lotof times I think we're scammers
.
I completely understand.
You can even come to thedepartment.
You can see me face to faceRight.
A lot of the times it's like,oh no, I ordered my grandson.
A lot of the times it's like,oh no, I ordered my grandson,
(18:35):
those Jordans.
It's like, okay, that's fine, Ijust wanted to make sure have a
great day.
A lot of the times they're likeI have no idea what you're
talking about.
It's like, okay, we'll go fromthere.
And a lot of the times withbanking institutions, if you're
not checking your credit Right,I was a victim of identity fraud
.
Back realized I was like well,I did not sign up for a Lowe's
(18:56):
or Sephora gift card.
So when you realize that you'rea victim of a scam, there's
like a series of things that youneed to do in order to protect
yourself in the long run.
Me I didn't follow my own advice.
I didn't have my credit frozen.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So ever since then, on all three Credit Experian,
equififax and TransUnion it'sfrozen.
So I don't know who would wantto be me but they can't do it
anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I think about that a lot, especially with my kids
coming up.
How are they going to protectthemselves?
What can we do?
My husband's very good atwatching things and so if I
spend anything, my husband'sright there going.
Spend anything, my husband'sright there going.
Hey, were you just at Kroger?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Um, yeah yeah, I, I went and got lunch, he goes.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, I'm just checking, I just got to watch
this stuff and I'm I'mappreciative of that, but work
has taught me a lot about linksI have.
I'm not going to lie, it'sembarrassing.
I am a person who understandsand knows to look at the email
addresses, but they catch me atthe most inopportune times, when
(20:05):
I'm in a hurry or it justhappens to be something that I
think I should know about and Idon't, and I'm like, oh my
goodness, and I click the linkand then I end up in training
again.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, so even people, even us.
I will admit I have clicked onone of those gosh darn links
because it looked so real and Iwasn't paying attention.
It was from somebody important.
So I'm like multitasking and Ilook at it and I'm like awesome,
I have to train that trainingagain, oops.
I was like it's basically likehi, gotcha, you failed.
And it's like gosh, darn it,Dang it, Ashley.
(20:33):
Everybody has fallen for it onevery scale of education and
it's really just if you see alink and it is, you're kind of
weary on whether to trust her ornot don't click on it.
If you get a text from yourbank or a phone call from your
bank saying hey, we've seenfraudulent account, just hang up
the phone, look at that textmessage, log into your bank
(20:55):
account in UC.
Cause I've gotten those callsfrom on my personal cell phone
Like hey, somebody's trying todo whatever on your bank account
.
I was like, all right, so I'velogged into my bank account.
I don't see it, it's not there.
So I call a branch directly.
It's like okay, I got thisphone call.
I've checked.
I just want to verify with youguys that that was a scam.
They're like, yeah, that was ascam, we wouldn't call you and I
was like, okay, well, I justwant to verify.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Well, and that's good .
Because then now we're gettinginto a time where, when you're
trying to log into certainaccounts, they've got so many
authenticator processes andthey're like can you give me
your phone number and youraddress?
And I'm like, oh yeah, I reallydon't want to.
Well, I need to authenticateyour account and it's actually
(21:36):
valid, right?
Or the ones that still ask foryour social security number.
I'm like, ooh, I might have tocall you back because I don't
trust you.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah and anything.
If you get a phone call andthey're claiming whether it is
the financial or if it's likethe IRS, we've gotten that as
well or social security, likeokay, we need your information
over the phone.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
IRS isn't going to call you.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
No, we did have an unfortunate case where an
individual they fully believedit was the IRS and they lost a
fair amount of money in giftcards.
They are very big in gift cardsbecause as soon as that money's
gone, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
There's no way to trace it, right?
No, I get it, because that'swhat they're after.
Is that low traceability factor, right?
Darn gift cards and, if I'mcorrect, you all have actually
gone to merchants in differentstorefronts and educated the
store clerks and managers andstuff.
If somebody's coming in askingfor $1,000 in gift cards, that
(22:34):
should be something you shouldpay attention to.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yes, and there was at one point when I was on patrol
and I was standing there, I wasgetting me a little snacky snack
from Target, asking for $1,000in gift cards.
Yes, that should be somethingyou should pay attention to.
Yes, and there was at one pointwhen I was on patrol and I was
standing there, I was getting mea little snacky snack from
Target and I see this sweetlittle meemaw.
She's at a checkout and she'sgot a stack of gift cards.
I'm like either she's got 30grandchildren and there's some
type of family reunion orsomething's going on.
(22:56):
Right, so I went and I talked tothe manager.
I was like how long has shebeen here and how often has she
been here?
And they're like, oh, this isher second time today.
And I was like, all right, so Ipulled her aside and I talked
to her and I was like this isthe reason why I'm talking to
you.
I'm a little concerned.
She explained it to me.
I was like you need to go toyour local police department and
you need to report it.
Any gift cards that you have.
(23:18):
What they usually do is theywant you to send a picture of
the back with the informationscratched off.
Don't send any of those, anygift cards that you have right
now that you've alreadypurchased.
Go speak with customer serviceand see if they can refund it.
Or you just have gift cards now.
A lot of them, yeah, a lot ofthem.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
It's just very unfortunate.
It breaks my heart, it's alittle scary, but it's
definitely something that we allneed to be processing.
If you see something, saysomething.
Yeah, yes, that goes foreverybody, not just Detective
Moore walking through Targetgetting a snacky snack, right.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yes, and we have had cases of where a manager, an
employee, will pull us aside ifwe're just walking.
They're like, hey, this personhas been trying to, whether it's
a scammer using like 15different gift cards, or it's
somebody buying a bunch of giftcards like hey, this is kind of
weird, just wanted to let youknow like awesome, thank you so
much, and 99 of the time it's acase for us and we'll work it
(24:16):
from there yeah, wow, crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So how do we protect ourselves?
What do?
What do we do aside from hypervigilance on the links and
whatnot?
What else can we do?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
in order in terms of like, say, if you do, if you get
off the phone like you knowwhat?
I just gave them my date ofbirth and my social security
number.
I probably shouldn't have donethat.
Freeze your credit.
Yeah, congratulations.
You've got my social securitynumber.
You can probably not really domuch with it.
You can't get a credit card.
You can't get a loan, you can'treally do much with that.
If you're not technology savvy.
(24:51):
If there's somebody that youtrust that can help you with
those three credit bureaus,which is Experian, equifax and
TransUnion, get their help.
Get a trusted individual likehey, can you help me freeze my
credit?
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So say, you freeze your credit.
How long does it have to staythat way?
What do you do to repair it?
You're not getting a new socialsecurity number, so, or are you
?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
So that would be more of a question for Social
Security.
I know that you can reapply fora new Social Security number.
What those circumstances are,that's more of a them question
if you can get a hold of them.
But that's kind of like foryour Social Security is making
sure that your credit is safe.
Because, even when my identitywas stolen, my credit was dinged
like 200 points Yikes, and thatwas a lot.
(25:36):
It is a lot and so thankfully ifyou go on those and say your
credit's not frozen yet, so yougo through and you can report
those like hey, this is fraud,this is fraud and you do it on
all three of them.
They'll take it off your credit.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Oh, right on.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
And it's great, and so you can freeze it.
So my credit is frozen all yearround, 24 7.
It's a pain in the butt if yougot to buy a car or a house.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
I was going to say how do you manipulate that
situation?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Then you have to go back on all three and unfreeze
them.
It's a pain in the behind butin terms of your long-term
safety, for your credit, it'skind of worth it.
Even my daughter she's oneyears old.
I have her credit frozenbecause that is a scam as well.
Unfortunately, it's familymembers who are not the best of
people, or random Joe Schmoesacross the world will get that
(26:22):
Social Security number and bythe time they turn 18, they try
to get a credit card.
And it's ruined and there'sreally nothing that they can do
about it at that point, besidesjust try and work towards it,
and that's not fair to them.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And even with like a lot of with the three credit
bureaus if you say you have apower of attorney over your
elderly parent.
You can upload those documentsto those three places and say
look, I have power of attorney,I want to freeze their credit.
You can do that.
They will let you do that ontheir behalf If you show the
proper documentation saying that, hey, I'm in charge of all this
(26:57):
stuff for them and I just wantto protect them.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's a great idea.
Didn't even know you could dothat.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yes, and then there's also a few places that you can
report it.
They won't necessarilyinvestigate it, it's more for
statistics, like I had mentionedearlier you can report it to
the FBI.
In terms of social security, ifyour identity is stolen, you
can go to identitytheftgov andyou can basically say hey, this
is what happened to me, this ishow much I lost.
(27:29):
So here's my information.
Obviously, if you got burnedwith an internet scam, going on
the internet, it's not going tobe kind of a fun place, correct?
You can always, obviously, finda trusted individuals like hey,
I fell for this.
I need your help Becauseobviously the first step would
be to tell somebody.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Preferably your local law enforcement, because if you
tell your daughter or your sonor your family member like hey,
I fell victim to a scam and I'mkind of ashamed about it, like
okay, well, that's okay, mom,and they move on, a lot of it's
not reported to us at all justbecause of like, oh well, you
know, it wasn't that much money.
I'm not going to waste thedepartment's time or there's no
(28:06):
solvability factors.
They're probably across thecountry, whatever.
But in order a lot of times toget that ball rolling, to get
that stuff off your credit toyou need the police report you
need that police report,especially with the financial
institutions.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
They need that police report and aside from that,
that's really why y'all arethere is to help the public in
all these situations, which isamazing, and I give milton pd an
immense amount of credit aboutthe accessibility y'all have to
the public and very open andwilling to chat and address all
(28:42):
these issues.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
So we try and be transparent and speak with the
community, kind of like in thesesituations like this, um, doing
a podcast to kind of get thatinformation out there of like
what's possible scans, thingslike that.
We try and talk with anybody.
That's one of the things Iloved about patrol is I got to
talk to so many different peopleand they would ask me about my
job and I would get to give alittle information for them yeah
(29:05):
like oh yeah, you know how'syour day going.
Oh well, I took this report fora fraud, so you know you should
freeze your credit if you thinkabout it or do those little
tidbits the ability to do thatis amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Now on cid.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Obviously it's a little harder to do.
That is amazing.
Now on CID obviously it's alittle harder to do that.
We're kind of on that back end.
We don't get that initialcontact with those individuals,
we're just the point of contact.
To some people it's one of theworst things that's ever
happened to them, sure, andwe're their primary contact for
that, and so it's not as fun,obviously, given that type of
information like.
I'm so sorry that this hashappened to you Right.
(29:43):
Cause you get the post event andfall out a lot of the times.
There is a lot of traumaassociated with this.
Um.
One of the statistics that Igot from the national institute
of justice is that about 31percent of the victims anywhere
from like 60 or older experiencemoderate emotional distress and
about 29 percent experiencedmild and then 27 percent.
Out of all of the statistics sothat's like 2010 to like 2020.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So about 27 percent experienced severe emotional
distress there's a lot of shamein that to know that you know
you're smarter than that and youknow better, but you still fell
victim and there's a lot ofshame associated with that.
And it shouldn't be that waybecause, as we talked earlier,
(30:26):
we all kind of fall somewhere onthat.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
It happens to everybody.
I had an older family memberwho had fallen victim to it.
Even on my in-law's side theyhad fallen victim to it.
Even on my in-law's side theyhad fallen victim to it and I
didn't find out for a yearbecause they didn't want to tell
me, because they know that I'min law enforcement and they felt
embarrassed.
But you're the one they shouldtell you would think that, but
because I deal with this everyday and I've told them about it.
(30:52):
They were so embarrassed.
And they didn't want to talkabout it, they didn't want me to
know.
But at the end of the day,whether it's, all I can offer
you are words of encouragementor just you know, I'm really
sorry this happened to you.
If you just want to talk aboutit, like I may not be able to do
anything for you, like say thiscase isn't in my jurisdiction,
I will help lead you in theright way.
You want to have a conversationabout it?
(31:13):
You don't have anybody to talkto?
Well, I'm free for the nextfive minutes.
You want to have a conversationabout kind of what you're
feeling?
Cause, at the end of the day,we're here for the public.
So if you need that shoulder tocry on for a minute or two, I'm
here for you.
You need some advice?
I'm here for you, and that'skind of what we try and do.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Absolutely and I can appreciate that and I love that.
Everybody that I've talked tothrough PD I've only been here
since July.
I think I say that in everypodcast so all the listeners
know how long I've been here.
Sorry, but you all have been soopen about that and I feel like
the perception of police andeverything is people are
(31:53):
generally, you know they avoidgoing to the police station.
I know I grew up thinking thatthat was the last place I should
be and for a lot of reasons Ifollowed that and I never ended
up in a police station for thewrong reasons.
The good news is that it's agreat place and a great resource
for things that are happeningin your community, for questions
(32:14):
that you have regarded tosafety, or if you see something
or if you're worried aboutsomething.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Y'all are a fabulous resource for that oh yeah,
whether that's either going tothe actually going inside our
department and you want to talkto somebody, awesome, an officer
will be dispatched to you.
If you have some genericquestions, maybe one of the nice
ladies at the front they cananswer those questions they're
lovely they are so nice they'remy favorite.
Yep, I go say hi to them everymorning.
Um, or it's whether you want totalk with an officer on the
(32:41):
phone.
You call the non-emergencynumber.
An officer will call you.
Or if you want to talk to adetective, they'll let us know
and we'll, we'll talk to you,we'll kind of answer those
questions.
You'd go on the city's websiteand you can like submit a little
response.
Yep, um, a feature thatsometimes we didn't even know
was possible, because I got anemail from the city's website
and I was like that seems like ascam it wasn't I verified it
(33:03):
through the chain of command.
It was not a scam.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
It looked a little sketchy I never got one of these
before well, I never knew itwas a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It was like a year after I had became a detective
and I was like I've never gottenthis, this seems.
So I reported it as a phishingalert and it came back and I was
like no, it's not phishing.
I was like oh, oh, good Okay.
Okay, well then I'll moveforward from there.
But you can even, you know, askquestions or anything like that
on the city's website email allof our contact information, all
(33:30):
the detectives.
Our emails are out there.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Our desk phones are out there on the website, shoot
us an email, any questions,phone call in person.
We're here to answer thosequestions for you, sure?
So, as we're talking aboutcontact information and where to
find it, number one, the citywebsite is wwwmiltongagov.
Head on over to the policesection and you can click there
and you'll find all theinformation detective moore was
just referring to.
For ease and convenience, doyou want to share any of those
(34:01):
numbers, your email or the bestnumber for people to contact if
they've been a victim or theyknow somebody who has been a
victim of one of these crimes?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
So if we're talking about somebody who has been
victimized and they haven'treported it, the best place to
go because if you call my deskphone I'll be like I'm so sorry
that this has happened to you,but we kind of need to go
through the proper channels.
And you know an initial reportneeds to be done.
They'll get all thatinformation and I'll work the
back end and I'll start sendingout my subpoenas and things like
that.
So the best, like first step,is to call that Alpharetta
(34:30):
Milton non-emergency number andwhat's that it?
is 678-297-6314.
And even if you GoogleAlpharetta Dispatch we do share,
because that's our sisteragency is Alpharetta, we share a
dispatch center, so it'll justsay Alpharetta it's still us
Gotcha Because they'll answerthe phone and say Alpharetta,
(34:51):
Milton and Fire.
But if you think somebody hasbeen victimized of fraud or you
are yourself a victim of fraud,contact your local police
department first and foremost.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Then you can go through the steps of.
A lot of times the officerswill tell you is like OK, well,
have you called your bank?
No, ok, go ahead and start thatfraud case with your bank.
Have you frozen your credit?
Have you checked your credit?
Things like that.
And if they aren't supertechnology savvy, a lot of times
we might ask, hey, do you havesomebody who that you trust,
(35:23):
that we can call on your behalfand see if they can help you get
this information?
Like, hey, I'm the officer, I'mthe detective over your mom's
case.
This is the information that Ineed.
Can you help her get that, orcan you help?
her do that.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And those are kind of the steps for that.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
That's awesome.
I love that.
As we're wrapping this up, isthere anything else you want to
share with everybody regardingthis that they really need to
know and pay attention to?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
If they're asking for gift cards, it's a scam.
If they're calling you sayingyou missed jury duty, you have a
warrant or anything like that,95% of the time it is a scam.
Hang up the phone, Anythinglike that, the IRS.
They will not call you.
The Social Security office theywill not call you.
95% of the time, the banks willnot call you.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
The toll roads aren't even going to call you.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
No, A lot of people are like, oh my goodness, I was
on vacation recently.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
It's called phishing.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
for a reason they are literally phishing, but it's
P-H, not F.
They are phishing for thatinformation, to find somebody
who is vulnerable enough toclick on that link, to call them
back, to do any of this inorder to get that money, because
, at the end of the day, that'sall they want.
They want your information orthey want your money.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
But those are the kind of things, the main things
to look out for.
Be weary of anything on theInternet.
Just because it's on theInternet doesn't mean it's true.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Really.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I didn't know that one it's so shocking.
I know I could go right now andcreate a Wikipedia document
about random stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Totally editable.
Anybody can edit thoseWikipedia Kids in college.
Do not use that as one of yourresources.
It is not a valid resource.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I'm just saying, or if you haven't figured that out
by now and you're in college, goahead and use it, feel free.
You will get that grade thatyou deserve, the grade that you
deserve.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
That's funny, yeah, the grade you deserve.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, just be weary of everything on the internet.
Any phone calls that's callingyou about IT bank or anything
like that hang up.
The best case if you are able,go to your local financial
institution branch.
Go there, talk to them about it.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Or talk to a trusted person in your family so that
they can help you through thatprocess.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Don't click on links.
Don't click on links.
That is going to be the name ofthis podcast.
Don't click on links.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Even if you Google a lot of websites, you can still
fall victim to that If you don'tknow the website and it's not
verified, because what they dois they can mirror a website, a
very legitimate website, thesame URL and everything, but
it's a scam.
So you have to be very vigilant.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
And Facebook messages , the DMs, coming through all
the platforms.
If you coming through all theplatforms, don't talk to them.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Stranger danger is real.
Do not talk to strangers on theinternet.
They could be weirdos.
Face-to-face interactions, forthe most part, are always best.
Obviously there are somerestraints and you know driving
and things like that, sure, butjust don't have so much trust in
(38:20):
everybody, yeah.
It's terrible to say, but inthis day and age you can't trust
everybody.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Nope, you can't.
I always said I should havegrown up in the 50s.
Believe it or not, that wasbefore my time.
I mean, I always joke about howold I am, but the 50s were
before my time and I'm talkingabout the 1950s, not the 1850s.
So just for clarification.
So, detective Moore, thank youso much for being here today.
I think this is such importantinformation that needs to be
(38:48):
talked about because, as yousaid, people are embarrassed
because they've they've trustedthe wrong person, and if you
have any questions or anythinglike that, please be sure to
head over to the website.
You can use that as your portalto ask these questions.
Somebody will help you.
Rpd is amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Well, we appreciate it and thank you so much for
having me so I can have theopportunity to kind of get some
of this information out there on.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Anytime, and anytime you got another message you want
to share regarding somethingthat you're seeing in the
community, give me a shout,We'll throw you back on here and
we'll we'll push out theinformation that people need to
hear.
So that's the purpose of this.
Appreciate you being here.
Everybody, Thank you forjoining me for this episode of
Milton and Maine.
I hope you learned something,Hope you got some insight into
(39:35):
what is going on out there tokeep yourself and your loved
ones safe.
Until next time, stay safe,stay curious.
Thanks for listening to Miltonand Maine.
We hope this episode gave youfresh insights into what makes
our city so special.
Stay connected and don't missan episode by subscribing to
this podcast on your favoriteplatform and following us on
(39:57):
social media for all updates.
And, of course, if you want tolearn more about the city, visit
us online at wwwmiltongagov forresources, news and upcoming
events.
Until next time.
Thanks for being part of theconversation and we'll see you
on the next Milton and Maine.
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