August 26, 2025 • 42 mins
Electronic invitations to a party, from a friend, safe right? Well not so fast. There is a new scam going around inside a party invite. Name of the company is legitimate, scammers are impersonating the real company.
Plus, recent FBI Public Service Announcements.
Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.
Plus, recent FBI Public Service Announcements.
Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
(00:23):
of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
Understand the information contained in this podcast is intended for
informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual
professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from
vetted sources and references. However, Rose resources outreach to safeguard
(00:45):
the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim
to a scam.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen show for
anyone who wants to protect themselves and their loved ones
from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific time on K four
HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and her guests
will provide valuable insights and practical tips on how to
(01:11):
recognize and protect yourself from scams. And now here is
your host, Joyce Petrowski.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, Hi, welcome, back everybody, So let's talk about scams.
I'm your host, Joyce Petrowski, Founder and board president of
Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly, where our mission
is to prevent the financial exploitation and defrauding of the
older adults through advocacy and education. The education we provide
is a scam prevention through education platform. We have workshops
(01:44):
where we educate the older adults on what to look
for to be able to determine, be able to recognize
a scam and then avoid falling victim. Our website is
Roseadvocacy dot Org. Can find our social media channels on
the homepage and if you scroll down to the bottom,
(02:05):
there'll be two different sign ups. One is for our
emailed newsletter and the other is for the newsletter that
we send every month in the mail. And don't forget,
you're going to want to click subscribe to this show
so you don't miss an episode. So today I want
to talk about a new scam that's going around. It's
(02:25):
regarding if you get an invite from a friend, an
invitation to a party. Okay, so I'm going to use
the word evite because it's coming electronically I'm not one
hundred percent positive that the scammers are impersonating evite, but
I'm just using it as a term here. So you
(02:48):
get an evite to a party from someone you know,
your friend, and you open it because you're interested, right,
You're curious. Okay, I got invited to a party and
you're asked to put a password in to see the invitation.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
So the evite.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Company is a real company, but this evite is not
coming from that company. The scammers are impersonating the company.
So when you check to see if the company is real,
like you can google the company to see if it's
a real evite company, it shows that it's a real company,
So it's just that it's not from them. They're being impersonated.
(03:27):
So when you enter the password, they ask you for
your address, but it's too late. Once you've entered the password,
they have access to your email account and can gain access.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
To your computer in some cases.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And then they're going to go and target everybody that's
in your address book and contact them with a evite
to a party from you. And since you, since it
shows that it's coming from you, your your contacts, your
friends are going.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
To want to open it.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And some people might, you know, something might click when
it's like, Okay, why do I have to put a
password in? Other people might be like, well, I have
an account with this company, so yeah, I have to
put my password in, you know, as my log in
so I can go in and look at it. And
so the cycle just keeps continuing and continuing with this
(04:23):
impersonation scam, but then also being able to access your
email account, which then gives them access to all of
your contacts and all of your emails, which sometimes could
have some personal information. Sometimes we send credit card information
over our email. If you just think about all the
different types of information that you might send over your email.
(04:45):
But then it's very possible that they could gain access
over your computer, which is going to be even more
detrimental because if you log in too sensitive accounts, let's
say financial accounts on your computer, and if they're in
the background watching, well, then they can see your logins
to your accounts. So you want to be very very
(05:06):
careful with this. If you get an EVITE from somebody,
and it's not just the invitation the electronic invitation company evite,
there's other companies out there that they can be invite
companies that they can be impersonating as well. If you
see that email come through and it's a party invitation,
(05:28):
check with your friend or the contact whoever it is.
First use the verified channels. That's your friend, you're going
to have their verified phone number, call them directly and
find out if this actually is a legitimate invite from
your friend before you get in and start looking around.
(05:48):
That's going to safeguard you from having somebody take over
your email account and or worse your computer. So this
information just came into me last week, and they're the person.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
That scent it.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Is still gathering information on this email scam, so once
as I get more information on it, we'll be putting
more information out, not only on this radio show, but
we're going to be putting it out on on social media.
So you're gonna want to make sure you if you're
on Facebook, follow us on Facebook, if you're on LinkedIn,
we're there, Instagram, we post just about every day, and
(06:27):
we're going to have this information on social media as well.
If anybody has has seen this scam come around, we're
very interested to know more about it, so please shoot
us an email comment on the Facebook post regarding this
(06:48):
radio show, give us a call and let us know,
be very interested to see how they you know, see
the actual email that comes in if you still have
it all right, now, we're going to move on to
there's four FBI public service announcements that we're going to
go over, dating back. The first one's the end of June.
(07:13):
I'm going to see here if I can share my screen,
there we go. So the first one is June twenty seventh,
and it's titled Criminals posing as legitimate health insures and
fraud investigators to commit health care fraud. See if I
(07:34):
can't put this up here in front of me. So
when the FBI puts out these public service announcements, they're
seeing an uptick in these types of scams and frauds
that are going on, and so they put these out
to warn people. So they're definitely seeing an uptick in this.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So the FBI.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Warns about this impersonation scam where where criminals are impersonating
health insurers, so health insurance companies and they're investigative team members.
They're sending emails and text messages to patients and healthcare providers,
disguising them as legitimate communications from trusted healthcare authorities, and
(08:19):
the messages are going to pressure victims into disclosing protected
health information, medical records, personal financial details, or providing reimbursements
for alleged service over payments or non covered services. So
be careful with that. This not only can steal your
(08:41):
personal information, your medical information, but it can also steal
your money. Like with non covered services, they could say
something's not covered and you owe money for it. So
tips to protect yourself Always be suspicious when you get
those unsolicited emails, text messages, phone calls. If you did
(09:02):
not initiate it, be suspicious about it.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
It's unfortunate. I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
When I grew up, well, we didn't have email when
I was growing up, but when it did come into play,
we had that belief where we could just trust and
so we just automatically trusted the email and for a
certain amount of time, you know, we could do that,
that whole trust, but verify and we could verify later
(09:29):
if we wanted to, and ninety nine percent of the time.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
We were good.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, Unfortunately the world is so much different today that
we can't just throw that trust out and just automatically trust.
We have to be suspicious and that's what we call
that healthy skepticism. Skepticism can be very healthy when you're
trying to protect yourself and your finances. So have that
(09:55):
healthy skepticism and just pause, ask yourself, why am I
getting this email? Why am I getting this phone call?
Why am I getting this text message?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Question it?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And if it is actually from your health insurance company,
well pull your health insurance card out and they're going
to have a customer service number on it. Call that
customer service number and find out what's going on. That's
your way to verify what's going on. And be very
careful if you are if you open the email, that
(10:27):
you don't click on any links. And I know if
you're looking at emails on your phone, it can be
very hard to not click on a link because you
have a very small screen that you're working with. So
just be very very careful with that. I know sometimes
if we go to use our finger to scroll scroll
down to read the email, sometimes it could hit the
(10:49):
wrong place and you've clicked on a link.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Which is another reason.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Why you should always have that good antivirus software and
that anti malware software on your phone. A lot of
people have it on their laptops, their desktops, their iPads.
But your phone is a mini computer and you need
to have it or a mobile I should say a
mobile computer. You need to have that on your phone
as well, because having that software, if it was a
(11:15):
bad link, chances are that software is going to come
up and warn you that this is a malicious site.
Are you really sure you want to go here? So
it's a safeguard you can put in place. Always use
strong passwords and multi factor authentication with all of your accounts,
and I should say not only strong passwords, but different
(11:36):
passwords as well.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
And keep your the antivirus.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Software updated and your operating system updated as well.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
The next one is let me see, let Me move here?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Is this one public service announcement came out on July third.
It's called Fraudsted's target US stock investors through investment clubs
as accessed on social media and messaging applications. So criminals
are out there trying to get you to maybe join
(12:12):
an investment club, get you to invest in stock. They're
contacting you through messaging applications social media so like Facebook
is one in particular, it has the messaging app with it,
so maybe they get a hold of you on the
messaging app because maybe they've they've cloned someone else a
friend of yours account, and you received a friend request
(12:36):
from your friend and you just automatically accepted. I actually
just had that happen to a family member this morning.
They were like, oh, oh, I think someone's cloned so
and So's account, and I said, yeah, they did. I
already let them know about it. And they're like, I
accidentally accepted that friend request, so they had to go
(12:57):
in and unfriend them or unfriended that fake account. But
that's that's a common way that they'll get you on
Facebook and then they message you and then they want
to take it over to a more secure messaging app
like WhatsApp. And I'm sure there's other ones out there.
But let's see what this public service announcement says. So,
(13:21):
so far in twenty twenty five, and this is only
six because this came out on July third, so six
months into the year, the FBI has seen at least
a three hundred percent increase in victim complaints referencing what's
called ramp and dump stock fraud from twenty twenty four.
(13:42):
So let's see what that ramp and dump stock fraud
is let's see. The scheme known as ramp and dump
stock manipulation targets US investors through online engagement, often via
social media advertisements or messages promoting an investment club or
(14:03):
of fellow investors, some of which may be bots or
fake accounts. And so let's think about that. We've heard
of the celebrity scams, right, you get contacted by a celebrity. Well,
with artificial intelligence, now it's really easy for the scammers
(14:25):
to clone a celebrity's voice and use that or even
have you know, show.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
You in the forefront.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
The celebrities make it look like it's the celebrities picture
or that you're talking to the celebrity, but it's really
them in.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
The background, and that's that's their deep fake.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
So with artificial intelligence, we need to be even more careful,
you know, with this.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
So let's see where we're at here.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
These promotions typically direct victim to secure messaging apps where
the group operates. So a lot of scammers like to
go to WhatsApp because it is more secure than text
messaging or Facebook messaging.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
All of that.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
To appear credible, the scammers may impersonate legitimate brokerage firms.
We've talked about this impersonation scam.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
A lot.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
A lot of information about a lot of companies is online.
You just need to go to their website and find
a lot of information out and scammers are really good
at creating fake websites to impersonate companies. They secretly control
a large volume of low price stock and coordinate efforts
(15:49):
to inflate its price. That's the ramp up by inflating
the price by encouraging investment club members to purchase shares
over a period of several weeks or months. So that's
their way to inflate the price in essence, to ramp
up the price of the stock. And then once the
(16:09):
price is artificially elevated, because if you remember.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
We've talked about the pig.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Butchering scam where scammer gets you to invest, and it's
usually cryptocurrency investment, they create fake statements. Well they're doing
this here too. They can create fake statements and show
you or maybe on the website they've got some tracker,
you know, fake tracker there that's monitoring the stocks and
(16:38):
they create this fake inflated price to show you, and
then the criminals will sell off their shares, which is
dumping it at a profit, leaving the legitimate investors with
significant losses as the stock value collapses.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
So let me go back here. I think I might have.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Misstated something here I said they can show as like
in the pig butchering scam, where they can make fake
investment statements and show that you're making all this money
in this account. It looks like on this one that
based on getting the investment club members to purchase a
(17:24):
bunch of shares over a period of several weeks or months,
will will inflate the price as more.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
People buy the stock.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And then so once the price it's artificially elevated that way,
and then the criminals are going to sell it off
their shares at a profit before they even let you
know what's going on, and then your year back with
(17:55):
having a lower valued stock because the stock value has collapsed,
and so now you have a loss. So just be
very careful. If you're going to be joining an investment
club and you don't know anything about it, do your research.
Please do your research. Talk to you know, talk to
(18:16):
your if you have a stockbroker, if you have an
investment advisor, talk to them. See if they know about
this investment club and what's going on. But please do
your research and just type in the name of the
investment club you know in your search engine and put scammer,
fraud after it and see what comes up. You'd be
(18:39):
amazed at what's out there. But please just do your
research before you get involved in any sort of investment club.
So let's see how to so unsolicited investment tips received
via unsolicited text messages or social media advertisement linking it
(19:04):
to an online investment club.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Be very careful about that. There's also.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Claims from well known financial advisors or wealth managers offering
exclusive stock recommendations through these online clubs. Again, a lot
of us want to believe what these well known financial
advisors or wealth managers have to say. But still you
(19:33):
need to do your research because with this artificial intelligence,
it could be a scammer impersonating this well known financial
advisor or wealth managers. So do your research. Pressure to
act quickly, that's usually a huge, huge red flag, and
(19:54):
they're going to say it's you know, the market moving
and all of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
You need to get in now.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Again, do your research, take the time pause, do some.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Research before you invest your money.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
All right, so that's that one. Let's go to the
next one here.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
This one is July thirty. First, it is.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Unsolicited packages containing QR codes used to initiate fraud schemes.
We talked about this probably in June, I think on
social media. We had heard a lot about it where
it was the brushing scam, and that we might have
even have put that out there even before June, maybe
(20:45):
it was in the spring. There's this brushing scam out
there where sellers on let's say Amazon, you know, Facebook, Marketplace,
wherever they're selling online. It's usually Amazon because most most
of the sellers are on Amazon, but and a lot
(21:08):
of people have Amazon accounts, so it's a really popular
platform to to sell your products on. But could be
legitimate companies that are actually trying to inflate their reviews
that they have on their products and they send you
(21:30):
a bunch of Kachaski stuff that you didn't even order
and and all that. But you can go if you
just look up brushing scam and that's brushing as in
like a hair brush, you'll find out more information on that.
But let's see here. Then they the criminals then said
(21:55):
we're going to take this scam, and we're going to
change it a little bit. We're going to send a
package to people with a bunch of or could be
one thing, it could be a bunch of things that
they didn't order, but they don't have a sender's name
or address on there. And then you open the box.
Most people are going to open the box. They're curious,
(22:16):
they want to see what's in it. And there's a
QR code and they want you to scan the QR
code to see who sent you the package. And that
QR code, once you scan it, then prompts you to
provide personal and financial information, which then downloads malicious software
(22:37):
onto your phone. And you know what happens when you
get malicious software on your phone. The criminal can steal
a bunch of information. They can monitor everything you're doing
on your phone.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Yes, So tips to protect yourself on this one. Unsolicited packages.
Just be very careful with those that you've received. It's
always nice to get a package, especially when you didn't
buy something. Right you open it up and it's something
you never ordered and it was.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Actually addressed to you.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Because we all know sometimes we get packages delivered that
were for our neighbor. It was delivered to our place
by mistake, so you know, make sure it has your
name and address on it. But if it's things you
didn't order, you're not under any obligation to return those.
You want to keep what'sever in the box, you know,
just be careful with what it is, obviously right and
(23:42):
or you can just throw it away, but do not
scan any QR codes.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
I know you might be curious.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
As to who scent it, but just know that this
is a scheme that criminals are using, and once you
scan that QR code, they can take over your phone.
So just be very very careful with that. Just rip
up the paper, throw it away.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
And then let's see.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah, and then with QR codes also, QR codes can
be be manipulated, and we've seen a lot of information
out there from a lot of different people. It's usually
when the QR codes are they could be on a
piece of paper that's stapled to you know, a telephone
(24:35):
poll or a sign or the you know, the window
or something. It's out in the public where a bad
actor could take a fake QR code and put it
over top of the legitimate one, and to your naked eye,
you don't realize that it's it's that the QR code
(24:57):
has been has something over another QR code on top
of it, and so you scan it and then it
affects your phone in a bad.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Way, in a malicious way.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
So even be careful with QR codes out in the
public as well.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Let's go too. We have one more. Let's see this one.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
The most recent one is from August thirteenth. Fictitious law
firms targeting cryptocurrency scam victims combine multiple exploitation tactics while
offering to recover funds. Now, we actually just posted this
on social media yesterday, So there are bad actors out
(25:49):
there that are posing as fake law firms and they
are going to cryptocurrent and see scam victims and saying
that they can recover their funds, but of course it
comes with a fee.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
So there's a lot of exploitation tactics used in this one.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
And this happens to affect the older adults more so
than other age populations. So they're exploiting the emotional state
and the financial need to recover funds from a previous
scam and giving the victims the safety and security by
impersonating or falsely affiliating themselves with multiple government agencies, or
(26:45):
as the title of this pa PSA says, they.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Just make up a fake law.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Firm because we all look to law firms, you know,
the majority of law firms as persons of authority, so
they So.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
This scam poses a lot of different risks.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It could including the theft of personal data and funds
from unsuspecting victims. And if the bad actors are impersonating
a legitimate law firm, well there could be some reputational
harm there to the actual the actual lawyers being impersonated,
(27:28):
so there's that added determent there as well.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
But just know that law firms are not out there.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Trying working to get your money back from a cryptocurrency scam.
So if you remember, gosh was it last seems like
it's been forever. Last week, we had Aaron Weston and
she works at Operation Shamrock, and she is an expert
(28:06):
in cryptocurrency and specifically the pig butchering scam, but she
also knows about a lot of other scams as well.
But she is an expert in cryptocurrency. So if you
have lost money in a cryptocurrency scam, I highly suggest
that you go to her website and it's Operation shamrock
(28:26):
dot org and look at information there and maybe inquire
with someone in their office. If you have been contacted
from a law firm from someone saying they're from a
government agency trying to help you get some or all
of your funds that you lost to a cryptocurrency scam.
(28:49):
To recover those, contact her her agency, Operation shamrock dot org.
Like I said, she is a cryptocurrency expert and they
will be able to talk you through this and let
you know what is going on. So there's a lot
(29:15):
of different well, there's a lot of different red flags
here on this PSA.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Let's just go through here.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Impersonation of actual lawyers or legitimate law firms and the
production of fictitious documents with the legitimate law firm insigney
or a letterhead, So it's a it's a red flag indicator.
But if they're if the bad actors are impersonating an
actual law firm and they've made letterhead with the law
(29:43):
firm's logo and this and that on it, that's going
to be extremely difficult to know if you're actually getting
if that letter is actually from the legitimate law firm,
or if it's a scammer in person that law firm,
(30:05):
then it says impersonation or affiliation as official authorized partners
with multiple US and foreign government or regulatory entities.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Just know there are no law firms which are.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Officially authorized partners of US government agencies. So if you're
getting information about recovering some of your lost funds and
it's coming from a law firm saying that they are
partnered with an authorizedment US government agency, just know that
no law firm is an official authorized partner of a
(30:40):
US government agencies, so you would know that's fake right.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Off the bat.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Sometimes the letters might refer to fictitious government or regulatory
entities such as International Financial Trading Commission and it's i NTFTC.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
You can see that right in there.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Double check verify whether such agency even exists. Scammers have
been known to just make up We talked about charities,
you know, when a natural disaster happens, sometimes they just
make up a fake charity. Well, they can make up
fake government or regulatory entities. Do your research and verify
(31:27):
that that.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Is an actual agency.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
If they're requesting payment to help you recover your funds
and they want you to pay them in cryptocurrency or
gift cards or prepaid gift cards. That's a big red
flag there right there.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Sometimes they state that the victim was on a government
affiliated list of scam victims and they can recover their
money through legal channels. That's a big red flag there.
The government is not going to publish an affiliated list
of scam victims. They're just they're not making that public.
(32:17):
They're referring you to a crypto recovery law firm.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
We've talked about that.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
There is no law firm that is an affiliated partner
with the US government. They might state that your funds
are in an account held at a foreign bank and
they want you to register an account at that bank.
You should not have to register an account at a
(32:43):
foreign bank or a US bank to recover funds. If
they're going to put you in a group chat like
on WhatsApp or other messaging applications, supposedly for the secrecy
and safety of the client, that's a big red flag too.
(33:03):
Legitimate law firms, legitimate government agencies just don't use what's
happened and all of that to message with their clients.
If they don't have the ability to prove credentials or
a license. They don't want to appear on camera, they
don't want to do video meetings. But remember with this
(33:27):
that we talked earlier about artificial intelligence, and this is
with this was going to come into play with a
lot of different scams where the scammer would not come
on video to talk to you because they they're not
who they're impersonating themselves to be. But now with this
(33:48):
artificial intelligence in the deep fakes, they can make that
they can make it look like whoever it is they're impersonating,
So it makes it even more difficult to determ if
it's a scam. And there's also they've seen where these
(34:08):
fake companies, the bad actors are requesting victims to send
payments to a third party for purposes of maintaining secrecy
and safety. That's a big red flag as well. So
in these circumstances, you need to use what's called a
zero trust. You need to assume that no one should
(34:34):
be trusted to help you get your recover your funds
from a scam until you have done your research and
you have verified that this is an actual company, and.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
You have to think through the process.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Here when someone gets scammed and they report it, it's
going to go through an investigative process. The police, the FBI,
different types of law enforcement. They're going to go through
an investigative process with you. And if they can then
get to the people that are committing these crimes, it's
(35:18):
going to get you know, they're going to have the prosecutor,
the district attorney, whoever it is that is going to
prosecute the case, and if they can recover assets, then
you're going to have the court.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
System that's going to come out.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
And say or And again I'm not one hundred percent
on how this exactly works, which is why you should
talk to someone at operationshamrock dot org. They have got
all of this knowledge. But someone whether it's the fbilaw
(36:00):
enforcement or the prosecutor, the courts are then they know
that you are one of the victims because you've already
reported it. You've proven to them that you've lost the
money and you are one of the victims. And they've
gone through and they've been able to recover some assets.
It happens, sometimes not a lot, but sometimes it does happen. Well,
(36:22):
then it's filing the claim and then being able to
get some of your money back. So there's a process
for all of this and the channels that you have
to work through. So someone that's just getting a hold
of you, and I see this on our Facebook post
whenever we're talking about a specific scam, we get all
(36:44):
of these and it could be bots, it could be
actual people, but they're making comments on our post and
they're saying, if you've been a victim of a scam
and you've lost money, contact this person, and they most
of the time will give a WhatsApp phone number or
contact them because they helped me get my money back.
(37:05):
I try to go in and delete all of those,
but sometimes people see them before I can delete them.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Their bogus. Please just ignore those.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Don't call those WhatsApp numbers, don't contact those people, because
they're going to be very good at convincing you that
they can help you get your money back. Just know
that there's a process that has to come into play
before actual assets. If there are any assets that can
be recovered to where then if you were one of
(37:39):
the victims, you might be able to get a portion
of your money back. That's all I have for you
guys today. Next week we're going to have doctor Martina
Dove on.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
We're going to talk more on let me see if
I can stop sharing here, all right.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
We're gonna have doctor Martina Dove on again. She's gonna
go over some updates specifically related to some romance scams,
and in the near future we are going to have
Aaron West and doctor Martina Dove on and it'll be
the three of us talking more about the psychology and
(38:27):
different scams and how scammers will exploit your emotions and
your good nature to get you to engage with them
and hand over personal information or money. So don't forget
Go to our website Rosadvocacy dot org. You'll find all
of our social media links at the top of the page.
(38:49):
You're going to want to subscribe to this podcast so
you don't miss an episode. You can find all of
our episodes on our YouTube channel. That link is at
the top of our home page at Roseadvocacy dot org.
Scroll down to the bottom and you will find you
can sign up for our newsletters. Our emailed newsletter and
we send one out via mail as well. You can
(39:13):
sign up for one or both of those. I don't
want to give you guys a little bit of an
analogy that I actually just thought of last week.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
We get a lot of.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
People, I mean, really, who wants to talk about scams?
Is not a fun topic to talk about with a
lot of people. It's negative, you end up losing money,
and it's emotional, and it just has a lot of
detrimental effects. But we're at a point that we have
(39:45):
to talk about this, and I use the analogy of
if you remember when you were first learning how to drive,
you weren't experienced. You knew how to drive, You've taken classes,
you took the test, you passed the test. You've been driving,
maybe even for a couple of years, but you weren't experienced.
And you're going down the road and you know you're
(40:07):
you know, maybe you know you're speeding, maybe you don't
know your speeding. But all of a sudden, you see
a policeman, whether they're parked on the side, they're come
in the other direction. You automatically put on the brakes.
It's a panic and a knee jerk panic reaction. You
put on the brake. Well, as you get more experienced driving,
(40:31):
this happens. You see the policeman on the side, you
see the policeman coming, you know, on the other side
of the road, or you all of a sudden see him,
you know, wherever you're more apt to just take your
foot off the gas and let your engine slow down
a little bit. Like that, you're pausing and you're just
(40:52):
letting your foot off the gas a little bit, and
that's your pause. Because you're experienced, you've been dry a
lot number of years, it becomes a habit. You just
pause and take your foot off the accelerator.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
A little bit. Well, this is what we want you
to do with scams.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
And it's not that we want to have all this
negative information and have you looking over your shoulder all
the time, but we want to help you develop that
healthy skepticism.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
So when you.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Are contacted, you're taking that pause, you're taking your foot
off of that accelerator, and you're pausing to be able
to do your research and use a clear state of mind,
a rational state of mind, to determine whether this is
a scam or not. So having that information, whether you
(41:45):
get it via social media, you get it via the newsletters,
you're getting it on this weekly radio show, or a
combination of some or all of them, it's there to
help this healthy skepticism become a abbit.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
So when you're contacted.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Your foot comes off the accelerator a little bit, and
you take a pause and you research what is going
on with a rational state of mind and not in
a panic mode. So with that, thank you for joining me,
and I look forward to seeing you next week.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Well that's all the knowledge for this episode. June in
every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOURHD Radio
at KFOURHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge.
So you have the power to make scam protection your
healthy habit and until then, feel free to reach out
to Joyce and let's talk about scams.
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
(00:23):
of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
Understand the information contained in this podcast is intended for
informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual
professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from
vetted sources and references. However, Rose resources outreach to safeguard
(00:45):
the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim
to a scam.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen show for
anyone who wants to protect themselves and their loved ones
from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific time on K four
HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and her guests
will provide valuable insights and practical tips on how to
(01:11):
recognize and protect yourself from scams. And now here is
your host, Joyce Petrowski.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, Hi, welcome, back everybody, So let's talk about scams.
I'm your host, Joyce Petrowski, Founder and board president of
Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly, where our mission
is to prevent the financial exploitation and defrauding of the
older adults through advocacy and education. The education we provide
is a scam prevention through education platform. We have workshops
(01:44):
where we educate the older adults on what to look
for to be able to determine, be able to recognize
a scam and then avoid falling victim. Our website is
Roseadvocacy dot Org. Can find our social media channels on
the homepage and if you scroll down to the bottom,
(02:05):
there'll be two different sign ups. One is for our
emailed newsletter and the other is for the newsletter that
we send every month in the mail. And don't forget,
you're going to want to click subscribe to this show
so you don't miss an episode. So today I want
to talk about a new scam that's going around. It's
(02:25):
regarding if you get an invite from a friend, an
invitation to a party. Okay, so I'm going to use
the word evite because it's coming electronically I'm not one
hundred percent positive that the scammers are impersonating evite, but
I'm just using it as a term here. So you
(02:48):
get an evite to a party from someone you know,
your friend, and you open it because you're interested, right,
You're curious. Okay, I got invited to a party and
you're asked to put a password in to see the invitation.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
So the evite.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Company is a real company, but this evite is not
coming from that company. The scammers are impersonating the company.
So when you check to see if the company is real,
like you can google the company to see if it's
a real evite company, it shows that it's a real company,
So it's just that it's not from them. They're being impersonated.
(03:27):
So when you enter the password, they ask you for
your address, but it's too late. Once you've entered the password,
they have access to your email account and can gain access.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
To your computer in some cases.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And then they're going to go and target everybody that's
in your address book and contact them with a evite
to a party from you. And since you, since it
shows that it's coming from you, your your contacts, your
friends are going.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
To want to open it.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And some people might, you know, something might click when
it's like, Okay, why do I have to put a
password in? Other people might be like, well, I have
an account with this company, so yeah, I have to
put my password in, you know, as my log in
so I can go in and look at it. And
so the cycle just keeps continuing and continuing with this
(04:23):
impersonation scam, but then also being able to access your
email account, which then gives them access to all of
your contacts and all of your emails, which sometimes could
have some personal information. Sometimes we send credit card information
over our email. If you just think about all the
different types of information that you might send over your email.
(04:45):
But then it's very possible that they could gain access
over your computer, which is going to be even more
detrimental because if you log in too sensitive accounts, let's
say financial accounts on your computer, and if they're in
the background watching, well, then they can see your logins
to your accounts. So you want to be very very
(05:06):
careful with this. If you get an EVITE from somebody,
and it's not just the invitation the electronic invitation company evite,
there's other companies out there that they can be invite
companies that they can be impersonating as well. If you
see that email come through and it's a party invitation,
(05:28):
check with your friend or the contact whoever it is.
First use the verified channels. That's your friend, you're going
to have their verified phone number, call them directly and
find out if this actually is a legitimate invite from
your friend before you get in and start looking around.
(05:48):
That's going to safeguard you from having somebody take over
your email account and or worse your computer. So this
information just came into me last week, and they're the person.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
That scent it.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Is still gathering information on this email scam, so once
as I get more information on it, we'll be putting
more information out, not only on this radio show, but
we're going to be putting it out on on social media.
So you're gonna want to make sure you if you're
on Facebook, follow us on Facebook, if you're on LinkedIn,
we're there, Instagram, we post just about every day, and
(06:27):
we're going to have this information on social media as well.
If anybody has has seen this scam come around, we're
very interested to know more about it, so please shoot
us an email comment on the Facebook post regarding this
(06:48):
radio show, give us a call and let us know,
be very interested to see how they you know, see
the actual email that comes in if you still have
it all right, now, we're going to move on to
there's four FBI public service announcements that we're going to
go over, dating back. The first one's the end of June.
(07:13):
I'm going to see here if I can share my screen,
there we go. So the first one is June twenty seventh,
and it's titled Criminals posing as legitimate health insures and
fraud investigators to commit health care fraud. See if I
(07:34):
can't put this up here in front of me. So
when the FBI puts out these public service announcements, they're
seeing an uptick in these types of scams and frauds
that are going on, and so they put these out
to warn people. So they're definitely seeing an uptick in this.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So the FBI.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Warns about this impersonation scam where where criminals are impersonating
health insurers, so health insurance companies and they're investigative team members.
They're sending emails and text messages to patients and healthcare providers,
disguising them as legitimate communications from trusted healthcare authorities, and
(08:19):
the messages are going to pressure victims into disclosing protected
health information, medical records, personal financial details, or providing reimbursements
for alleged service over payments or non covered services. So
be careful with that. This not only can steal your
(08:41):
personal information, your medical information, but it can also steal
your money. Like with non covered services, they could say
something's not covered and you owe money for it. So
tips to protect yourself Always be suspicious when you get
those unsolicited emails, text messages, phone calls. If you did
(09:02):
not initiate it, be suspicious about it.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
It's unfortunate. I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
When I grew up, well, we didn't have email when
I was growing up, but when it did come into play,
we had that belief where we could just trust and
so we just automatically trusted the email and for a
certain amount of time, you know, we could do that,
that whole trust, but verify and we could verify later
(09:29):
if we wanted to, and ninety nine percent of the time.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
We were good.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, Unfortunately the world is so much different today that
we can't just throw that trust out and just automatically trust.
We have to be suspicious and that's what we call
that healthy skepticism. Skepticism can be very healthy when you're
trying to protect yourself and your finances. So have that
(09:55):
healthy skepticism and just pause, ask yourself, why am I
getting this email? Why am I getting this phone call?
Why am I getting this text message?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Question it?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And if it is actually from your health insurance company,
well pull your health insurance card out and they're going
to have a customer service number on it. Call that
customer service number and find out what's going on. That's
your way to verify what's going on. And be very
careful if you are if you open the email, that
(10:27):
you don't click on any links. And I know if
you're looking at emails on your phone, it can be
very hard to not click on a link because you
have a very small screen that you're working with. So
just be very very careful with that. I know sometimes
if we go to use our finger to scroll scroll
down to read the email, sometimes it could hit the
(10:49):
wrong place and you've clicked on a link.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Which is another reason.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Why you should always have that good antivirus software and
that anti malware software on your phone. A lot of
people have it on their laptops, their desktops, their iPads.
But your phone is a mini computer and you need
to have it or a mobile I should say a
mobile computer. You need to have that on your phone
as well, because having that software, if it was a
(11:15):
bad link, chances are that software is going to come
up and warn you that this is a malicious site.
Are you really sure you want to go here? So
it's a safeguard you can put in place. Always use
strong passwords and multi factor authentication with all of your accounts,
and I should say not only strong passwords, but different
(11:36):
passwords as well.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
And keep your the antivirus.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Software updated and your operating system updated as well.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
The next one is let me see, let Me move here?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Is this one public service announcement came out on July third.
It's called Fraudsted's target US stock investors through investment clubs
as accessed on social media and messaging applications. So criminals
are out there trying to get you to maybe join
(12:12):
an investment club, get you to invest in stock. They're
contacting you through messaging applications social media so like Facebook
is one in particular, it has the messaging app with it,
so maybe they get a hold of you on the
messaging app because maybe they've they've cloned someone else a
friend of yours account, and you received a friend request
(12:36):
from your friend and you just automatically accepted. I actually
just had that happen to a family member this morning.
They were like, oh, oh, I think someone's cloned so
and So's account, and I said, yeah, they did. I
already let them know about it. And they're like, I
accidentally accepted that friend request, so they had to go
(12:57):
in and unfriend them or unfriended that fake account. But
that's that's a common way that they'll get you on
Facebook and then they message you and then they want
to take it over to a more secure messaging app
like WhatsApp. And I'm sure there's other ones out there.
But let's see what this public service announcement says. So,
(13:21):
so far in twenty twenty five, and this is only
six because this came out on July third, so six
months into the year, the FBI has seen at least
a three hundred percent increase in victim complaints referencing what's
called ramp and dump stock fraud from twenty twenty four.
(13:42):
So let's see what that ramp and dump stock fraud
is let's see. The scheme known as ramp and dump
stock manipulation targets US investors through online engagement, often via
social media advertisements or messages promoting an investment club or
(14:03):
of fellow investors, some of which may be bots or
fake accounts. And so let's think about that. We've heard
of the celebrity scams, right, you get contacted by a celebrity. Well,
with artificial intelligence, now it's really easy for the scammers
(14:25):
to clone a celebrity's voice and use that or even
have you know, show.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
You in the forefront.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
The celebrities make it look like it's the celebrities picture
or that you're talking to the celebrity, but it's really
them in.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
The background, and that's that's their deep fake.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
So with artificial intelligence, we need to be even more careful,
you know, with this.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
So let's see where we're at here.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
These promotions typically direct victim to secure messaging apps where
the group operates. So a lot of scammers like to
go to WhatsApp because it is more secure than text
messaging or Facebook messaging.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
All of that.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
To appear credible, the scammers may impersonate legitimate brokerage firms.
We've talked about this impersonation scam.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
A lot.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
A lot of information about a lot of companies is online.
You just need to go to their website and find
a lot of information out and scammers are really good
at creating fake websites to impersonate companies. They secretly control
a large volume of low price stock and coordinate efforts
(15:49):
to inflate its price. That's the ramp up by inflating
the price by encouraging investment club members to purchase shares
over a period of several weeks or months. So that's
their way to inflate the price in essence, to ramp
up the price of the stock. And then once the
(16:09):
price is artificially elevated, because if you remember.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
We've talked about the pig.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Butchering scam where scammer gets you to invest, and it's
usually cryptocurrency investment, they create fake statements. Well they're doing
this here too. They can create fake statements and show
you or maybe on the website they've got some tracker,
you know, fake tracker there that's monitoring the stocks and
(16:38):
they create this fake inflated price to show you, and
then the criminals will sell off their shares, which is
dumping it at a profit, leaving the legitimate investors with
significant losses as the stock value collapses.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
So let me go back here. I think I might have.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Misstated something here I said they can show as like
in the pig butchering scam, where they can make fake
investment statements and show that you're making all this money
in this account. It looks like on this one that
based on getting the investment club members to purchase a
(17:24):
bunch of shares over a period of several weeks or months,
will will inflate the price as more.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
People buy the stock.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And then so once the price it's artificially elevated that way,
and then the criminals are going to sell it off
their shares at a profit before they even let you
know what's going on, and then your year back with
(17:55):
having a lower valued stock because the stock value has collapsed,
and so now you have a loss. So just be
very careful. If you're going to be joining an investment
club and you don't know anything about it, do your research.
Please do your research. Talk to you know, talk to
(18:16):
your if you have a stockbroker, if you have an
investment advisor, talk to them. See if they know about
this investment club and what's going on. But please do
your research and just type in the name of the
investment club you know in your search engine and put scammer,
fraud after it and see what comes up. You'd be
(18:39):
amazed at what's out there. But please just do your
research before you get involved in any sort of investment club.
So let's see how to so unsolicited investment tips received
via unsolicited text messages or social media advertisement linking it
(19:04):
to an online investment club.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Be very careful about that. There's also.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Claims from well known financial advisors or wealth managers offering
exclusive stock recommendations through these online clubs. Again, a lot
of us want to believe what these well known financial
advisors or wealth managers have to say. But still you
(19:33):
need to do your research because with this artificial intelligence,
it could be a scammer impersonating this well known financial
advisor or wealth managers. So do your research. Pressure to
act quickly, that's usually a huge, huge red flag, and
(19:54):
they're going to say it's you know, the market moving
and all of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
You need to get in now.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Again, do your research, take the time pause, do some.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Research before you invest your money.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
All right, so that's that one. Let's go to the
next one here.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
This one is July thirty. First, it is.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Unsolicited packages containing QR codes used to initiate fraud schemes.
We talked about this probably in June, I think on
social media. We had heard a lot about it where
it was the brushing scam, and that we might have
even have put that out there even before June, maybe
(20:45):
it was in the spring. There's this brushing scam out
there where sellers on let's say Amazon, you know, Facebook, Marketplace,
wherever they're selling online. It's usually Amazon because most most
of the sellers are on Amazon, but and a lot
(21:08):
of people have Amazon accounts, so it's a really popular
platform to to sell your products on. But could be
legitimate companies that are actually trying to inflate their reviews
that they have on their products and they send you
(21:30):
a bunch of Kachaski stuff that you didn't even order
and and all that. But you can go if you
just look up brushing scam and that's brushing as in
like a hair brush, you'll find out more information on that.
But let's see here. Then they the criminals then said
(21:55):
we're going to take this scam, and we're going to
change it a little bit. We're going to send a
package to people with a bunch of or could be
one thing, it could be a bunch of things that
they didn't order, but they don't have a sender's name
or address on there. And then you open the box.
Most people are going to open the box. They're curious,
(22:16):
they want to see what's in it. And there's a
QR code and they want you to scan the QR
code to see who sent you the package. And that
QR code, once you scan it, then prompts you to
provide personal and financial information, which then downloads malicious software
(22:37):
onto your phone. And you know what happens when you
get malicious software on your phone. The criminal can steal
a bunch of information. They can monitor everything you're doing
on your phone.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Yes, So tips to protect yourself on this one. Unsolicited packages.
Just be very careful with those that you've received. It's
always nice to get a package, especially when you didn't
buy something. Right you open it up and it's something
you never ordered and it was.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Actually addressed to you.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Because we all know sometimes we get packages delivered that
were for our neighbor. It was delivered to our place
by mistake, so you know, make sure it has your
name and address on it. But if it's things you
didn't order, you're not under any obligation to return those.
You want to keep what'sever in the box, you know,
just be careful with what it is, obviously right and
(23:42):
or you can just throw it away, but do not
scan any QR codes.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
I know you might be curious.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
As to who scent it, but just know that this
is a scheme that criminals are using, and once you
scan that QR code, they can take over your phone.
So just be very very careful with that. Just rip
up the paper, throw it away.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
And then let's see.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah, and then with QR codes also, QR codes can
be be manipulated, and we've seen a lot of information
out there from a lot of different people. It's usually
when the QR codes are they could be on a
piece of paper that's stapled to you know, a telephone
(24:35):
poll or a sign or the you know, the window
or something. It's out in the public where a bad
actor could take a fake QR code and put it
over top of the legitimate one, and to your naked eye,
you don't realize that it's it's that the QR code
(24:57):
has been has something over another QR code on top
of it, and so you scan it and then it
affects your phone in a bad.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Way, in a malicious way.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
So even be careful with QR codes out in the
public as well.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Let's go too. We have one more. Let's see this one.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
The most recent one is from August thirteenth. Fictitious law
firms targeting cryptocurrency scam victims combine multiple exploitation tactics while
offering to recover funds. Now, we actually just posted this
on social media yesterday, So there are bad actors out
(25:49):
there that are posing as fake law firms and they
are going to cryptocurrent and see scam victims and saying
that they can recover their funds, but of course it
comes with a fee.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
So there's a lot of exploitation tactics used in this one.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
And this happens to affect the older adults more so
than other age populations. So they're exploiting the emotional state
and the financial need to recover funds from a previous
scam and giving the victims the safety and security by
impersonating or falsely affiliating themselves with multiple government agencies, or
(26:45):
as the title of this pa PSA says, they.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Just make up a fake law.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Firm because we all look to law firms, you know,
the majority of law firms as persons of authority, so
they So.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
This scam poses a lot of different risks.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It could including the theft of personal data and funds
from unsuspecting victims. And if the bad actors are impersonating
a legitimate law firm, well there could be some reputational
harm there to the actual the actual lawyers being impersonated,
(27:28):
so there's that added determent there as well.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
But just know that law firms are not out there.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Trying working to get your money back from a cryptocurrency scam.
So if you remember, gosh was it last seems like
it's been forever. Last week, we had Aaron Weston and
she works at Operation Shamrock, and she is an expert
(28:06):
in cryptocurrency and specifically the pig butchering scam, but she
also knows about a lot of other scams as well.
But she is an expert in cryptocurrency. So if you
have lost money in a cryptocurrency scam, I highly suggest
that you go to her website and it's Operation shamrock
(28:26):
dot org and look at information there and maybe inquire
with someone in their office. If you have been contacted
from a law firm from someone saying they're from a
government agency trying to help you get some or all
of your funds that you lost to a cryptocurrency scam.
(28:49):
To recover those, contact her her agency, Operation shamrock dot org.
Like I said, she is a cryptocurrency expert and they
will be able to talk you through this and let
you know what is going on. So there's a lot
(29:15):
of different well, there's a lot of different red flags
here on this PSA.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Let's just go through here.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Impersonation of actual lawyers or legitimate law firms and the
production of fictitious documents with the legitimate law firm insigney
or a letterhead, So it's a it's a red flag indicator.
But if they're if the bad actors are impersonating an
actual law firm and they've made letterhead with the law
(29:43):
firm's logo and this and that on it, that's going
to be extremely difficult to know if you're actually getting
if that letter is actually from the legitimate law firm,
or if it's a scammer in person that law firm,
(30:05):
then it says impersonation or affiliation as official authorized partners
with multiple US and foreign government or regulatory entities.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Just know there are no law firms which are.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Officially authorized partners of US government agencies. So if you're
getting information about recovering some of your lost funds and
it's coming from a law firm saying that they are
partnered with an authorizedment US government agency, just know that
no law firm is an official authorized partner of a
(30:40):
US government agencies, so you would know that's fake right.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Off the bat.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Sometimes the letters might refer to fictitious government or regulatory
entities such as International Financial Trading Commission and it's i NTFTC.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
You can see that right in there.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Double check verify whether such agency even exists. Scammers have
been known to just make up We talked about charities,
you know, when a natural disaster happens, sometimes they just
make up a fake charity. Well, they can make up
fake government or regulatory entities. Do your research and verify
(31:27):
that that.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Is an actual agency.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
If they're requesting payment to help you recover your funds
and they want you to pay them in cryptocurrency or
gift cards or prepaid gift cards. That's a big red
flag there right there.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Sometimes they state that the victim was on a government
affiliated list of scam victims and they can recover their
money through legal channels. That's a big red flag there.
The government is not going to publish an affiliated list
of scam victims. They're just they're not making that public.
(32:17):
They're referring you to a crypto recovery law firm.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
We've talked about that.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
There is no law firm that is an affiliated partner
with the US government. They might state that your funds
are in an account held at a foreign bank and
they want you to register an account at that bank.
You should not have to register an account at a
(32:43):
foreign bank or a US bank to recover funds. If
they're going to put you in a group chat like
on WhatsApp or other messaging applications, supposedly for the secrecy
and safety of the client, that's a big red flag too.
(33:03):
Legitimate law firms, legitimate government agencies just don't use what's
happened and all of that to message with their clients.
If they don't have the ability to prove credentials or
a license. They don't want to appear on camera, they
don't want to do video meetings. But remember with this
(33:27):
that we talked earlier about artificial intelligence, and this is
with this was going to come into play with a
lot of different scams where the scammer would not come
on video to talk to you because they they're not
who they're impersonating themselves to be. But now with this
(33:48):
artificial intelligence in the deep fakes, they can make that
they can make it look like whoever it is they're impersonating,
So it makes it even more difficult to determ if
it's a scam. And there's also they've seen where these
(34:08):
fake companies, the bad actors are requesting victims to send
payments to a third party for purposes of maintaining secrecy
and safety. That's a big red flag as well. So
in these circumstances, you need to use what's called a
zero trust. You need to assume that no one should
(34:34):
be trusted to help you get your recover your funds
from a scam until you have done your research and
you have verified that this is an actual company, and.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
You have to think through the process.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Here when someone gets scammed and they report it, it's
going to go through an investigative process. The police, the FBI,
different types of law enforcement. They're going to go through
an investigative process with you. And if they can then
get to the people that are committing these crimes, it's
(35:18):
going to get you know, they're going to have the prosecutor,
the district attorney, whoever it is that is going to
prosecute the case, and if they can recover assets, then
you're going to have the court.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
System that's going to come out.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
And say or And again I'm not one hundred percent
on how this exactly works, which is why you should
talk to someone at operationshamrock dot org. They have got
all of this knowledge. But someone whether it's the fbilaw
(36:00):
enforcement or the prosecutor, the courts are then they know
that you are one of the victims because you've already
reported it. You've proven to them that you've lost the
money and you are one of the victims. And they've
gone through and they've been able to recover some assets.
It happens, sometimes not a lot, but sometimes it does happen. Well,
(36:22):
then it's filing the claim and then being able to
get some of your money back. So there's a process
for all of this and the channels that you have
to work through. So someone that's just getting a hold
of you, and I see this on our Facebook post
whenever we're talking about a specific scam, we get all
(36:44):
of these and it could be bots, it could be
actual people, but they're making comments on our post and
they're saying, if you've been a victim of a scam
and you've lost money, contact this person, and they most
of the time will give a WhatsApp phone number or
contact them because they helped me get my money back.
(37:05):
I try to go in and delete all of those,
but sometimes people see them before I can delete them.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Their bogus. Please just ignore those.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Don't call those WhatsApp numbers, don't contact those people, because
they're going to be very good at convincing you that
they can help you get your money back. Just know
that there's a process that has to come into play
before actual assets. If there are any assets that can
be recovered to where then if you were one of
(37:39):
the victims, you might be able to get a portion
of your money back. That's all I have for you
guys today. Next week we're going to have doctor Martina
Dove on.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
We're going to talk more on let me see if
I can stop sharing here, all right.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
We're gonna have doctor Martina Dove on again. She's gonna
go over some updates specifically related to some romance scams,
and in the near future we are going to have
Aaron West and doctor Martina Dove on and it'll be
the three of us talking more about the psychology and
(38:27):
different scams and how scammers will exploit your emotions and
your good nature to get you to engage with them
and hand over personal information or money. So don't forget
Go to our website Rosadvocacy dot org. You'll find all
of our social media links at the top of the page.
(38:49):
You're going to want to subscribe to this podcast so
you don't miss an episode. You can find all of
our episodes on our YouTube channel. That link is at
the top of our home page at Roseadvocacy dot org.
Scroll down to the bottom and you will find you
can sign up for our newsletters. Our emailed newsletter and
we send one out via mail as well. You can
(39:13):
sign up for one or both of those. I don't
want to give you guys a little bit of an
analogy that I actually just thought of last week.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
We get a lot of.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
People, I mean, really, who wants to talk about scams?
Is not a fun topic to talk about with a
lot of people. It's negative, you end up losing money,
and it's emotional, and it just has a lot of
detrimental effects. But we're at a point that we have
(39:45):
to talk about this, and I use the analogy of
if you remember when you were first learning how to drive,
you weren't experienced. You knew how to drive, You've taken classes,
you took the test, you passed the test. You've been driving,
maybe even for a couple of years, but you weren't experienced.
And you're going down the road and you know you're
(40:07):
you know, maybe you know you're speeding, maybe you don't
know your speeding. But all of a sudden, you see
a policeman, whether they're parked on the side, they're come
in the other direction. You automatically put on the brakes.
It's a panic and a knee jerk panic reaction. You
put on the brake. Well, as you get more experienced driving,
(40:31):
this happens. You see the policeman on the side, you
see the policeman coming, you know, on the other side
of the road, or you all of a sudden see him,
you know, wherever you're more apt to just take your
foot off the gas and let your engine slow down
a little bit. Like that, you're pausing and you're just
(40:52):
letting your foot off the gas a little bit, and
that's your pause. Because you're experienced, you've been dry a
lot number of years, it becomes a habit. You just
pause and take your foot off the accelerator.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
A little bit. Well, this is what we want you
to do with scams.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
And it's not that we want to have all this
negative information and have you looking over your shoulder all
the time, but we want to help you develop that
healthy skepticism.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
So when you.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Are contacted, you're taking that pause, you're taking your foot
off of that accelerator, and you're pausing to be able
to do your research and use a clear state of mind,
a rational state of mind, to determine whether this is
a scam or not. So having that information, whether you
(41:45):
get it via social media, you get it via the newsletters,
you're getting it on this weekly radio show, or a
combination of some or all of them, it's there to
help this healthy skepticism become a abbit.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
So when you're contacted.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Your foot comes off the accelerator a little bit, and
you take a pause and you research what is going
on with a rational state of mind and not in
a panic mode. So with that, thank you for joining me,
and I look forward to seeing you next week.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Well that's all the knowledge for this episode. June in
every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOURHD Radio
at KFOURHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge.
So you have the power to make scam protection your
healthy habit and until then, feel free to reach out
to Joyce and let's talk about scams.
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