It’s TOMORROW!!

Over the past few weeks I have been involved in some Senior Expo style events.  It has been fun and I am meeting lots of people of all ages.  To be honest I was shocked to see how many people turned out at Husson and what a vast collection of things to learn about!

Don’t Let Fraud Get You Down

Learn about it -Knowledge is POWER!  Tomorrow, Senator Susan Collins, our Senator and the Chair of the Special Committee on Aging,  will be speaking at the Scam Jam that AARP is putting on at Spectacular Events Center in Bangor.  It’s FREE and click here to watch more about it .  You don’t have to be an AARP Member to Register and it is still FREE, here is a printed description.

You might be asking, “What does this Scam Jam have to do with Technology, Kelly?”

There will be many discussions about Cybersecurity.  There is a workshop by the State Police:  “Staying Safe Online: Maine State Police Cyber Security Unit.”

Come down and join us!  It will be fun, coffee, food, free.

More Identity Theft

This is a scam that originated in August of 2005, settled down for a while and now seems to be ignited again.

You are to do your civic responsibility and report for Jury Duty. Most people don’t like having rearrange their whole lives around sitting in a room awaiting for their to be name called. And more and more people are deciding to skip out on this responsibility. But arrest warrants can be issued for people that fail to appear for jury duty, so deciding not to or thinking you didn’t report when called on, can create an intimidating situation.

Of course then enter the “opportunists.” The phone rings at your house and the caller claims to be a jury coordinator.

If you tell them you never received a summons for jury duty, the caller asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so it can be verified.

Once they “verify your PERSONAL information” they tell you they can cancel the arrest warrant. What you don’t know is they aren’t verifying anything, they aren’t canceling any warrant, they ARE stealing your identity, but in reality, you just gave it to them.

This all may sound silly to you, but do check in with your parents or other seniors in your life. They are particularly at risk for these schemes and the callers tend to be bullies.

The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Here is a link to the page on the FBI site, so you can read it for yourself. And like a previous post on this blog, snopes has it too.