A free community event for senior citizens is being held at Star Communications in Clinton Aug. 12 and designed to help teach seniors how to recognize scams, protect their personal information, and stay safe online.
For many local seniors, scamming has become a prevalent issue.
“It breaks your heart,” expressed Kyle Randleman, vice president of marketing and customer operations for Star Communications in Clinton. He gave an example of how his own mother fell victim to a scam email.
“My mom got hit with a hack; it was socially engineered. (The hacker) went on to her social media account and found out general information.”
The hacker sent an email posing as a club of which Randleman’s mother was a member. She made the mistake of clicking on the email, and some of her information became compromised.
Ron Carter, marketing manager for Star Communications in Clinton, explained how it was reports from the Sampson Sheriff’s Office that brought awareness to the number of scams that victimized local senior citizens.
“They reached out to us, oh gosh, three months ago, and they had been seeing a lot of scam activity with the elderly,” Carter recalled.
Carter and Randleman both explained how even the Star Communications staff are targeted by online scammers. Staff members are taught to highlight their computer mouse over the return email addresses — and see if something crazy pops up — but even then, scammers are growing more clever, creating email accounts that can appear legitimate, and Star staff themselves have to become even more cautious.
“Hover your mouse cursor over that email address and see what it says,” Randleman stressed.
Randleman also touched on how tricky scam phone calls can be now. These days, scammers can imitate loved ones’ voices using advanced technology, working to implore and manipulate victims into sending large amounts of money. Other times, scammers may present themselves even as law enforcement officers or the hospital staff to try to extract a large amount of money with few questions asked.
“If it’s anything that shows a tremendous sense of urgency, it’s normally a freaking hack. … Somebody’s gaming you. If they’re in that big of a hurry…if they’re just trying to push-push-push…better to hang up,” advised Randleman.
“Give me your number and let me call you back,” Carter suggested to say when a person encounters a phone call that seems suspicious.
“They’re gonna do everything to talk you out of not trying to call them back,” Randleman interjected.
Randleman added how easy it can be for a scammer to gather a citizen’s information from online and then create a seemingly legitimate scenario over the phone.
“I can prove it. … I can go to somebody’s social media account, get everything I need, pick up the phone and call them, and by the time I get done, I could probably have their username and password. That’s the sad part,” Randleman stressed.
The Senior Safety Training class will take place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Limited seating is available, around 50 people at maximum, Randleman clarified. It will include a slideshow, with around half an hour for questions and answers. Coffee and doughnuts will also be provided.
“They don’t have to be a customer of ours; we don’t care, we just want to get the word out, because we (Starr Communications) get hit (with email scams) every day,” Randleman impressed. “We’re just trying to be good community partners, to be quite honest. There’s nothing in it for us.”
Randleman clarified that, “We plan on having a series of these, this just being the first one. If it’s successful, we’d like to have an event just about…how to stream…how to use a tablet. … This (first training) is gonna be a lot about passwords. It’s gonna be about people impersonating business companies.”
“If I train four to do it, I guess it’s not a failure,” reflected Randleman, “but I’d like to do another one.”
Randleman and Carter both hope seniors will show interest and help enable this education series to continue further. Seniors can register by visiting Star Communications at 1322 Sunset Avenue in Clinton, Star Communications’ website, or by calling 910-564-7815. There is no cut-off date for registration.
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