Published December 29. 2022 01:45PM
by Lori Cooper tneditor@tnonline.com
The Jim Thorpe Police Department hosted an elder fraud lecture recently at Memorial Hall led by FBI Agent William Vigorito from the Scranton office.
Pennsylvania had the seventh highest number of fraud victims in the country with the sixth highest dollar loss in 2021, $77 million.
Fraud awareness and recognizing scams for those 60 and older is an initiative from the Department of Justice.
Jim Thorpe Police Chief Joseph Schatz organized the lecture “after a presentation a few months ago at the Jim Thorpe community watch meeting where residents expressed further interest.”
FBI statistics for 2022 indicate that the number of scams is going up as old scams are tweaked. The top type of scam is called “romance fraud” in which the perpetrator lures someone into an online relationship and then requests money. Other types of scams include investment fraud, techno, crypto and email compromises.
“Don’t answer the phone if you don’t recognize the number,” Vigorito said. “You know all of the people in your life who are going to call you.”
He also stressed that online purchases should be made with credit cards, not debit cards, which would allow access to bank accounts.
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