Education, vigilance key to not becoming a victim

People have called him many things — kind, loving, helpful, funny. I’ve even heard him described as meticulous.

But to me and all of my siblings, he’s simply Dad.

I’m the second-youngest of seven children my father raised, and it was only a few years ago I finally reached the age he was when I was born. This year, he turns 89. He still drives. He still goes to church, where he displays his musical talents on the organ he taught himself to play.

He lives just blocks from my stepmother, who is in an assisted living facility with severe dementia, and where he spends as much time as he can.

My dad loves his wife, his family, his spiritual home, and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I don’t think anyone was more excited about Tom Brady making the move from Boston more than my father and Brady himself.

But when I think about my dad, more often than not, my smile turns to tears. Not from anything he did — my father was and continues to be a great man — but because of what someone did to him.

Meticulous. There’s that word again. And my dad was meticulous as he separated the large stack of cash into separate envelopes. His hands shook with fear as he packed each envelope carefully into a box to send off to who knows where.

This was $20,000 — money my father, a retired railroad welder, didn’t even have. It came from a loan, one he continues to make payments on today.

The worst part about all of this is that my dad knew he was being scammed. My dad knew that if he told me or any of my siblings, we would stop him. We would help him. But the scammers on the other end of that phone scared him so much, reason and logic had been completely thrown out the window.

Recently, I’ve discovered a YouTube channel called Scammer Payback. It’s led by a cybersecurity expert known only as “Pierogi” who may or may not be in my dad’s neck of the woods in central Florida. Pierogi targets the scammers who have their sights on our parents, our grandparents, our sisters and brothers — really anyone we love.

He ties them up on the phone for hours. He hacks into their computers and steals their files, turning all of it over to the proper authorities. He’s named names of those leading these scam operations overseas, and has pushed for police to arrest them. And he’s personally called people targeted by these scammers, in an effort to break them free — many who have been continuously scammed for years.

Scams are nothing new, but the level we see such fraud and theft today is unprecedented.

The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network reported 4.8 million complaints of consumer fraud and identity theft in 2020 — up 45 percent from the year before.

Nearly half of all Americans experienced financial identity theft in 2020, according to the Aite-Novarica Group. Nearly half. That cost all of us $500 billion in 2019, and more than $700 billion at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

And it’s not getting any better.

Over the last few weeks, AARP Long Island and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has hosted a series of webinars with the RichnerLive arm of Herald Community Newspapers to talk extensively about all kinds of fraud — identity theft, elder fraud abuse, and this week, romance scams.

I’ve been honored to moderate these panels, which have included expert advice from AARP New York’s Long Island associate state director Bernard Macias, as well as USPIS experts like Donna Harris, Michael Del Giudice and Joseph Marcus.

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e’ve learned so much. If someone calls you, and asks you to send money for any reason — be skeptical. If they want to get on your computer, say no. If they tell you to pay in gift cards or that you must provide sensitive personal information to them, hang up.

And most importantly, be careful what you share. Facebook is a great way to connect to those we love, but it’s also a great way for scammers to collect a ton of personal information about you — information they can weaponize in an effort to empty your bank accounts.

At the same time, be careful about how you dispose of papers with sensitive details about you. Scammers will dig through your garbage, and they will find exactly what they need to take what rightfully belongs to you.

There’s still time to make a difference. Join us for our final installment in the Fighting Against Fraud series on Thursday, April 28 at noon.

You don’t even have to leave your living room — we’ll come right to your computer. Just register at LIHerald.com/romance.

My dad will never see that $20,000 again. So many more have lost money that can only be counted in the billions now. But it doesn’t have to continue.

We can fight these scammers by being vigilant, and by educating ourselves. It’s what each of us needs to ensure we — or those that we love — aren’t victimized again.

The author is executive editor of Herald Community Newspapers, a group that includes The Riverdale Press