Phone scams aren’t going away, so Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough is trying to help Monroe County residents stay safe.
On Thursday, the sheriff spoke to a near-capacity crowd at the Monroe Center for Healthy Aging.
“I couldn’t even find a place to park,” Goodnough said.
For an hour, he talked to the audience of mostly senior citizens about how to avoid becoming a victim of scams. He also addressed other crime concerns and took questions from the audience. Attendees received a handout on phone scams.
As the presentation opened, a man in the audience told the sheriff he’d gotten three scam calls just that morning.
“I feel your pain. My phone will ring here today with a scam. Phone scams are common. The more people we can educate on this tragedy, the better it is for us from the sheriff’s office perspective,” Goodnough said.
The sheriff had two main points: be suspicious of unknown calls and don’t giver callers any money or personal information.
“No one from law enforcement is going to call your house and threaten to arrest you if you don’t do something. If you’re wanted, we’re not going to call you and tell you we’re coming. The federal government will not call and arrest you. The IRS, FBI, Secret Service, nobody is going to call your house. Trust me on that,” Goodnough said. “If they call and say you’ve been scammed, but have to send money, do not send money for someone to clear it up. No one is going to call you if you’ve been scammed. If…
