On my watch – An August Avalanche of Scams Across Town and Help on the Way
By Anne W. Semmes
That email in early August appeared to be from my wildlife photographer daughter with her name and subject of “Transmitting images.” Not quite looking like her own email but perhaps… I opened it…My screen is seized by “Microsoft” with a TERRIFYING siren and messages across the screen citing my laptop has been compromised, with DO NOT TURN OFF COMPUTER AS YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING, CALL MICROSOFT AT THIS NUMBER NOW! So, it’s Microsoft to the rescue, correct? I call the number with the deafening siren continuing. A man answers the phone sounding foreign and far away. I hang up! I say a prayer and turn off my laptop and call my techie son-in law. “It’s a scam,” he tells. He’s able to inspect my laptop online and shares all is well.
All this when the day before I received an odd and concerning email from friend Louisa Stone. The crisis subject line states, “Broken Femur.” Her email is a request for help in her crisis to follow through on her Amazon gift order for a friend of $100. Looking suspicious, I respond with apologies I am away traveling…
Louisa, upon learning of this scam, calls police to her house, and calls her grandson. She would change her email and reach out with apologies to her friends and family having received that scammed email. But alas that scammed email of Louisa’s lives on, recently sent to the Round Hill Association (RHA) of Greenwich, addressed to Mark Pruner RHA director and realtor, cced to fellow members of the Round Hill Association (RHA), requesting Mark to complete an order on Amazon. Mark responded to Louisa, this email was “very highly likely” a scam.
Our churches being scammed
Meanwhile, Round Hill Community Church has been dealing with a painful email hacking involving the use of the name of its senior pastor Ed Hortsmann (but not his email) with urgent pleas for “gift cards, money, cash, going out to all members of the congregation,” tells Lynda Kinney, Church administrator. “If the pastor sends out an urgent request for money, you’ll likely do it! … It’s not a blame game. You’re acting out of compassion. Bad actors are taking advantage… There’s nothing we can do to thwart it.”
“Persistent scammers are reaching into everyone’s computers, cell phones and social media trying to rip off all of us every day,” weighs in Mark Pruner. “At the present time, the tech companies, phone companies and law enforcement are not able to stop this onslaught of scams, so it’s caveat user.”
Mark tells of having served on panels with FBI members, “And their philosophy is follow the money back to the perpetrators. The problem is you have scammers in known locations such as Eastern Europe, Russia, and Chinese scammers just over the border – that there doesn’t seem to be a real effort by the countries to stop them provided the scam efforts are outside of the country.”
Mark sees the need for “something to be done at the federal level because much of the problem is international” and “even domestic scammers have an overseas element such as servers or money transfers or crypto transfers.”
And now with scammers able to use AI says Mark, “It’s only going to get worse. AI makes detecting scam messages much harder. For many years, one way to spot a scam email was that it wasn’t written well, using awkward words or punctuation. Now, AI can generate perfectly written scam emails since they’re based on the writing styles of our top publications.”
Mark cites younger people who grew up with computers as “more sensitive to things that are out of the norm and more suspicious…Elderly folks who didn’t grow up with computers are more susceptible because things don’t stand out as much to them.”
What the Federal Trade Commission is reporting on scams
Just how susceptible these elder folks are I find in a recent online article sent to me by my daughter from the Federal Trade Commission with the headline of “FTC Data Show a More Than Four-Fold Increase in Reports of Impersonation Scammers Stealing Tens and Even Hundreds of Thousands from Older Adults.” Those losses by those over 60 counted to $445 million in 2024! Those scams so described by the FTC “generally involve someone contacting consumers to alert them to a fake and urgent problem…” Like a “Broken Femur,” like Microsoft citing my laptop as compromised! Those scammer lies are described as #1 “Claiming to be from your bank or a well-known company like Amazon #2 Scammers claiming to be a government officer warning that your Social Security number …or other information is being used to commit a crime #3 “Scams start with a fake on-screen security alert that looks like Microsoft or Apple with a number to call. If you call, they say your online accounts have been hacked.” Thank God I hung up!
“We have to be vigilant,” tells Tim Werbe, an RHA member and fellow recipient of Louisa Stone’s scammed email. He cites scams as becoming “more sophisticated,” that “Amazon needs to fight it.” And scammers do “prey on older people.” He’s learned, “They’re scamming homeowner’s mortgages, claiming to be the owner. We have to be very wary right now.”
“Scamming is a widespread problem via email and text!” adds Nancy Duffy, RHA board vice president who’d also received that scammed email at RHA. “The same goes for phishing on Instagram.” She’s the recipient of “a lot of scam, mostly from scammers using manipulated email addresses of those with AOL accounts. They are relatively easy to spot; however, the scammers are persistent.”
Greenwich Library stepping up with “DON’T TAKE THE BAIT!”
In this increasingly scamconcerned world Greenwich Library is offering some important programming. Next Tuesday on September 16, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is “DON’T TAKE THE BAIT! Tools to Stay Sharp and Scam-Savvy in Today’s World” addressing elder fraud and featuring three panelists: Emily M. Newcamp of The First Bank of Greenwich, Detective James Manning of Greenwich Police Department, and Michelle L. Beltrano, of Beltrano Law.Two more programs are coming up in October shares Lorna Rhyins, a key proponent of Tech Help at the Library. The first on Tuesday, October 14, from 2-3 p.m. will be “Cyber-Savvy Seniors: Staying Safe in the Digital Age,” online, featuring Richard Wilson, CEO of Kyvoo, a Connecticut-based AI company. And on Monday, October 20 from 6-7 p.m. “Cybersecurity in the Age of AI Online,” on “how AI is making scamming so much more difficult to catch and ways you can protect yourself.” All programs require registration.
