Episode 4: Internet Harms Part 2

 In our latest episode of Beyond the Grove, part of our Internet Harms Spotlight, we sit down with Sherri Marengo from the Forrest County Sheriff’s Office to talk about the scams affecting older adults right here in our community — and what you can do to protect yourself and the people you love. 

Beyond the Grove discusses topics related to mental health, addiction, recovery, and real-life experiences. Some episodes may include mature or sensitive subject matter that could be emotionally challenging for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
 
 This podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical, mental health, or legal advice. The content is not a substitute for consultation with qualified professionals. If you or someone you know is struggling, we strongly encourage seeking support from a licensed healthcare provider or mental health professional. In case of an emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately.
 
 By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge that the creators, hosts, and guests are not liable for any actions taken based on the content discussed. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Beyond the Grove discusses topics related to mental health, addiction, recovery, and real life experiences. Some episodes may include a mature or sensitive subject matter that could be emotionally challenging for some listeners. Listener Discretion is advice. This podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical, mental health, or legal advice. The content is not a substitute for consultation with qualified professionals. If you or someone you know is struggling, we strongly encourage seeking support from a licensed healthcare provider or mental health care professional. In case of an emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge that the creators, hosts, and guests are not liable for any actions taken based on the content discussed.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Hi, and welcome to this episode of Beyond the Grove. We're happy that you're joining us. I'm Colleen, and joining me today is Sherry Morengo, the public information officer with the Forest County Sheriff's Department. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for being here. Really appreciate it. Sure. We're always welcome to get out there and talk to people. Well, absolutely. And we're going to be talking about one of those very things in this episode. And that is really about the prevalence of online scams that specifically target senior citizens. What are some of the ways that you've been seeing that these scams, particularly here in our community, have been targeting seniors?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

When you get an email that you think looks legitimate, and sometimes it will be if you have like a Capital One account or you have a bank account and they send you an email and you look at it and you think, well, this looks legit, but then you have to double check the address, the email address that it comes from. And sometimes they will put links in these emails that they want you, you know, if you have any questions, click here to get your details or call this number for more information. And nine times out of 10, if you're not careful, it's that's how the scammers get your information. Because once you've dialed in, or once you especially if you click on a link that is not legit, then they automatically are in your computer at that point. And they have access to a lot more of your information than you think. And it's very easy for people to get, you know, to basically get duped by um different links and emails. They can spell capital one with an extra letter. And if you're just looking over it, you might not notice that it's not spelled correctly, or instead of it being a dot or g, it could be just like a dot net or dot com, which is not always correct. Um, so we just caution people to really read your emails very carefully.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Right, and make sure that it's coming from a legitimate center before clicking on it or any of those links included. Have you found that this is very common? That uh is the Forest County Sheriff's Department contacted often regarding some of these scams and some of the um consequences of folks that have unknowingly fell victim to some of these scams.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. A lot of these, um, believe it or not, really are more so coming from phone calls, uh, text messages. The to the spam text messages are crazy right now. And it's everything from you missed a court date to uh there's something wrong with your bank account to you forgot to pay your uh Wi-Fi bill. It's it's a lot of different things. I can give you some stats that are kind of scary. Uh, since January of last year, we had 20 reports that mentioned the word scam. We've had two, uh, the hacked bank account bank account cards in the neighborhood of about eight grand. Um, about$1,500 lost to people because they said it was Apple support. I'm assuming people that have Apple and iPhone products get these phone calls. I I don't. Um, and then about$11,000 lost from people impersonating law enforcement for old warrants or miss court dates or unpaid fines. It just runs the whole gamut of things that can scare you that you thought you did, but you didn't do. And unfortunately, that's where a lot of people lose their money and they lose a lot of it because they will ask you to um, you can pay your fines before we come and pick you up, which is so not right because we will never, we'll never call you. Uh, we're never gonna send you an email. If it's from the court, it'll come in the mail. If it's from law enforcement, we're coming to the door and we're gonna ask you to step outside and have a chat. But people will get a phone call and they'll say, This is major whoever with whatever law enforcement agency is, and you've missed a court date, and you probably don't remember that you missed your court date, but you can go ahead and pay your fine over the phone with a gift card or go to the Bitcoin ATM. And it's the would not believe the number of people that are so afraid they're going to jail for this that they will run out right away and do that. And then they've lost half of their savings or more sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Well, that's very scary when you receive all of these text messages on your phone and you wonder uh, or you think um this could be legitimate, or maybe I did have something come up and you start questioning. And I think it's really important that you went over the ways that the Forest County Sheriff's Department and the court does contact you so folks know when they receive some of these text messages that they are not legitimate. Uh, what should folks do if they receive a text message and they wonder about it? Should they call the Forest County Sheriff's Department? Is there a way for folks to determine before they click on anything and there's any kind of a serious consequence to investigate whether or not that message may be legitimate?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

We actually do encourage that if you get um what looks like uh what it looks like is that the law enforcement has been contacting you through a text or an email. The best thing to do is to call that law enforcement agency directly. Uh, we've had a lot of people that have just come to the sheriff's office and said, you know, here's my phone. Did you guys send this or did you call me? And we're more than happy to tell them no, it was not us. Just, you know, report it, delete it, and block it. And again, that also comes through um emails. If you get information that says, you know, click here to to put your to add your money to our PayPal account or to our Cash App. You can pay your fines this way. And um, a lot of times it is just not legitimate links. Um, and again, the phone numbers are never what they say they are, and you just have to be very cautious. Um, I know that uh, for example, my mother was the worst about she would get an email that says, Your computer is infected, you need to click here so that somebody with tech support can fix it for you. We'll jump in there and fix it, and she would do it every time. And then we would have to clean up her in non-infected computer that somebody infected just from clicking it. So again, I think some of the prevention comes from um family members, people that if you know someone that's older that might be possibly a victim to something like this, to sit down with them and go over their emails with them and just kind of make sure that they're not getting into something they can't get out of or losing their life savings. When you're in your, you know, whatever age you are, you losing five, six, seven thousand dollars is just devastating. You know, that could be your retirement.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Absolutely. So we talked a little bit about how some of these fraudulent emails come from organizations that are pretending, for example, to be a bank or that are pretending to be from law enforcement, but there's also other organizations uh that are being impacted by this, such as charities. You know, lots of people, Mississippi, of course, is considered one of this country's most charitable states. So so many people in this state are so very giving. Uh, however, you also have to make sure that you are giving to a legitimate organization because that's another way that people can be scammed. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Or one that sounds like it's legitimate. Like the American Cancer Society is the number one, I'm assuming, uh, charitable organization that people constantly donate to. I understand that. But then there are other companies that are not legit that will use like the United States Cancer Centers. They'll just they'll modify the name of it just enough that it makes you think, yeah, this is legitimate. I can do this. I need to be good. I need to make some contributions. And and and it can be, again, just a little off from the real company. And that's not just like the Cancer Society, it's not just the Alzheimer's Society, it's a lot of different charities. And it can happen to local people too.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Oh, absolutely. So it's really important to do some investigation and making sure whether or not that organization is legitimate before you uh send money electronically or support that organization. I think another area that is really scary, and we hear about it a lot in the news. And I know that many people are fearful of answering their phone if they're unsure of the phone number. And I think there's probably something in the news every day about AI. And that certainly is something that can be beneficial. However, there are um certainly criminals out there that are using AI in very scary and illegal ways. And my understanding is that some of these scams also can include uh voice manipulation. Absolutely and they can target people. Is that something that you've seen as well at the Forest County Sheriff's Department?

SPEAKER_02 10:40

I can't say that we personally have seen that in this area. I know that it has happened in other parts of Mississippi that I know other jurisdictions have had that issue where uh AI can go in and they can even pull your voicemail that you have left a message for somebody. They can pull your voicemail and their voice and pull it into AI and create like um a panic call, like, you know, that sort of thing. Um, I do know that there was one situation where uh a lady who had her son was incarcerated in one of the facilities in the state, and they did an AI call that basically said, Um, your son is injured, but we would like to get him out of the prison. And if you'll just send us$2,000 to this, we'll pay his whatever, his fine, and you can come pick him up in a couple of days. And she, of course, you know, thinking her son had been injured, and they used his voice on this call, she gave them her money. And then it turned out to not be anything that was legitimate. So you just really, if you have any doubts at all from a phone call, the best thing to do is just hang up and call your local law enforcement or call the person that they are supposedly coming to you about, call that person. Um, they can certainly make it sound like you have a family member that's been in an accident or is in the hospital or is, you know, or needs bail money. It could be anything.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And that's very scary. It is. Um, and that can instill a lot of fear in people. Is there really uh overall? I mean, I I think I'm hearing the message that about the importance of being vigilant and doing some research whenever you receive a communication that you might have questions about. And I'm thinking for our listeners, and I'm thinking maybe many people are thinking about loved ones right now when they're listening to it, they're thinking about some advice that they might give their loved one, or they're thinking about maybe going over some of their emails and making sure that they're legitimate. Really, that um that importance of research and verification is so important.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

I think the phone calls um have really the telephone calls that people get that say, you know, usually they say they are from law enforcement. And they've actually last week, for example, and I'm sure Major Humphrey won't mind me saying this, they called his phone and said, Hi, this is Sheriff, uh, this is uh Major Humphrey with the Forest County Sheriff's Office, and uh, and we'd like to get in touch with you about an unpaid fine. You can call us back at this number. It was his phone that they called. And so he came to me and he said, Call this and let me hear it. And it was somebody else pretending to be him, and they had left a message on his phone. So it can be anything like that. But you know, a lot of people will go to, um, and and it can be anybody, any age, any education. You go into a little bit of a panic when you think they're gonna come to the door and arrest me for something if I don't go put some money in a machine. And they will go to a Bitcoin machine, and we have several, we have many in the county and the city, um, where people go and they'll drop thousands of dollars for something that they believe is going to keep them out of jail, and then they turn around a little while later and think, wait a second, this might not be good and this might not be right. So then they will call and then they have to come and make a report. So we're just asking people to be really cautious. And if you get a call saying it's from the sheriff's office, say, let me put you on hold, then hang up and call us or call whatever agency it is and ask them for the person who just called you. Um we've done, I know we've done so many public service announcements, we've done uh at least one post every couple of weeks for the past year for people to just hang up, block it, report it, delete it, and don't give anybody your money. Just don't.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

What is some other safety advice that you would have for folks when it comes to online safety? I know oftentimes in this day and age, particularly with social media, people can be very open online about their lives, about their loved one, about other personal information that perhaps those that are not well-intentioned may use. I I'm sure this comes up quite a bit with the Forest County Sheriff's Department. What is some general uh safety advice that you would have for people when it comes to simple online vigilance, aside from uh certainly wondering about some of these scam emails?

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Sure. Um, social media has been a great help and a great hindrance to life in general. And I think anytime that you put any of your personal information out on social media, whether it's uh your hometown, it can be something as simple as your hometown, um, where your child goes to school, um, where you're going to be for your vacation. We ask people to never post, I'm gonna be gone to Disney for a week next week, or you know, because then people know that you're not home and that's a great opportunity for them to go and get in your house. So there are legitimate great reasons to have social media to keep up with your family and friends, but then there's also the danger that if you put too much of your information out there, it makes it too easy for the criminals to get to you. Um, and not just to you, like for your money, but physically to your home or, you know, where you work. So it's it's just being smart, being cautious. Um, I know a lot of my friends don't put pictures of their children up on social media anymore. And I I guess that's a good thing. Um I do like to see babies and little kids, but if you know, if that's the way they want to protect their children, that's just fine. Um, I do worry a little bit about our seniors because they they want to be so involved um that they just want to see everything and they don't really quite understand and they will click on just random stuff, and then you've got random issues. Um, and I will say that we've had people that have lost upwards, I'm gonna say somebody not too long ago, well, it was close to$20,000 just because they answered a call from somebody that said, Hey, I saw on Facebook this that you did, and you know, I think that um that you need to help us out by making this donation. And they thought it was real, and then they lost all that money. And once you put it in a Bitcoin machine, you're pretty much you're out of that money. It's not coming back. So the sheriff, you know, would appreciate if people would just be very cautious and double check with the source before you decide to go ahead and give them some money.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Absolutely. That is really good advice. Is there any other safety advice that you're seeing in terms of scams and how they're targeting people, whether that's seniors or anybody else in our community that that folks should be aware of and be vigilant regarding?

SPEAKER_02 18:12

The text messages seem to be getting pretty crazy lately. Um, and it's and it varies. It goes from, you know, you you've got an unpaid fine to um, you know, we would love to have you make this donation, or, or hi, I'm, you know, Joe Smith and I'm running for governor. And here is my link if you want to support my campaign. That's not always the way to get people to donate money to whatever. Um, and unfortunately, a lot of people fall for that sort of thing because it seems and it sounds and it looks like it's real. Um, we just want people to be more cautious about checking, again, with the source before they make any kind of monetary exchange just to protect yourself. And again, I do personally encourage um people who have older people in their family. You have parents, grandparents, sit down with them just for a few minutes and talk about what's look over their email with them. Um, make sure that they've got all of their um their spam blockers on, that they're not doing anything with their phone. A lot of phones will um, I know iPhones will block an unknown number, which is great. Yes. Uh some of the Androids don't do that, and it looks like a real number. It's or sometimes it's a it's a clone number. Like, hey, well, there's my my cousin Monica. And it's not, it's one number off, but it looks real and you're gonna answer it, and then you're in trouble. Um, we do have some uh some great handouts at the sheriff's office, uh, especially for uh senior adults, about um imposter scams from the IRS to law enforcement to charities, which is what you brought up. So if anybody has any questions or you need something like this, we'll be more than happy to bring it.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Those are excellent resources. And I think that was a really good point about having those conversations with the loved ones in your family about this very topic and particularly with all family members, about really taking uh a good look at information that is shared, because that information um can be shared with others and can be made public. And certainly there's so many benefits, just as you mentioned, Sherry, to social media in terms of spreading news and keeping connected. Uh, like anything else, though, there is certainly a a safe way to go about using some of those technological resources, especially for your um elderly.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

But because again, they they want to see everything, they wanna, they want to know everything, and that's great. But again, you also have to sit down with them and encourage them to be a little more selective and a little more private about what they do and don't do on social media. Um, and maybe just keep their family circle very small and not be involved in, like, you know, well, I'm a member of 72 groups. That's like 71 too many groups. So it's a good idea to kind of keep your circle very small as so that you are familiar with the people that are in your family. And that's where family groups come in, makes a great way to keep up with each other without without worrying about somebody getting in that doesn't need to be there.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

I think that's important an important point. And are you seeing that really financial extortion is really the primary goal of some of these criminals with all of these scams that you've been seeing in our community?

SPEAKER_02 21:46

There is, I can tell you, there has been a lot of money lost just in the last, I would say, 12, 14 months. Uh, I went back and just checked, and it's not just our department, but several departments in this area. And it just the numbers are astounding at how many people have walked off and just handed over anywhere from a thousand to twenty of their personal savings because of scam calls or text or an email, not realizing that it wasn't legitimate, that it was criminal.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

And that's very hard, just as you mentioned, to trace. And if somebody has been a victim of an online crime or financial extortion scam, they can come to the sheriff's department and make a report.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

They can, and we encourage that. We do. We encourage you before you make any kind of contribution monetarily because of an email or a text or a phone call that you clear that with us first or the Hattiesburg Police Department. Just somebody in law enforcement that can tell you if it's real or not real. I think that's a really good way to save yourself all the time and energy and the heartache of losing money. And again, it's it's all ages. It doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter where it comes from, it's still money that's lost. Um and that is devastating to some people.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Absolutely. That is hard-earned money that people worked very hard for. And um it's critically important to be vigilant when it comes to these issues all about these crimes. I want to thank you, Sherry, for joining us today. Is there any other information you would like to share about this topic?

SPEAKER_02 23:30

I really I think we've covered everything pretty well. And again, I I think the main thing that we need to get across is let's make sure that we're talking with our older people. Let's make sure that we're talking with each other about the text messages and and don't be afraid to question. Don't be afraid to question anything. Even if you think it's legit, still call call your bank, call the law enforcement and ask before you do anything. That is critical advice.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Thank you so much for letting me come in. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate it. That's great information. And I want to thank everyone for listening to this important episode of Beyond the Grove. Please share it with folks because this is essential information for our community. We really want to make sure that everybody has access to it. We appreciate you joining us. And remember that healing doesn't stop here, and neither does hope.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

If you like this podcast episode, please subscribe to Beyond the Grove for future episodes. We really appreciate our audience. And for more information about Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services, please visit Pine Grovetreatment.com and call 1 888 574 COVID. Numerically, that's 1 888 574 4673.