
Empowerment in the Fight Against Fraud
Article presented by Litter Quality Propane …
It’s often been said “knowledge is power”. Community members and representatives of local lending institutions learned more about fraud protection Thursday at the initial lunch and learn session of the South Central Ohio Fraud Forum held in the Riverview Conference Center of the Christopher Inn.
SCOFF, as the forum has been named, consists of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, local law enforcement agencies along with Homeland Credit Union, Kingston National Bank, Vinton County National Bank, The Savings Bank and Atomic Credit Union.
Scams cost individuals and families millions of dollars each year. In a release from the Federal Trade Commission last June, data showed consumers reported $76 million when paying cash to government impersonation scammers in 2023, up from $40 million in 2022.
In Thursday’s SCOFF presentation, Cyber Security expert Jeremiah Johnson noted the session was an eye opener for those in attendance.
“I think this is such a critical thing for our community” said Johnson. “Some of the folks from the banks were hearing things that were not normally a day-to-day thing.”
Johnson shared that 68% of 2024 data breaches involved human errors, such as falling for phishing scams.
Ross County Sheriff, George Lavender gave several examples of scammers taking advantage of unsuspecting individuals using threats such as repossession of a car by law enforcement unless the car owner makes a purchases gift cards for payment. “We are not going to repossess your car” Lavender told the audience. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Johnson says awareness is important in avoiding the tactics scammers use. “We need to do a better job of helping those community members that may fall for the scams.” Johnson said one scheme will be a scammer convincing a victim to purchase iTunes or Amazon gift cards to make payment. Why those specific cards? “Once you buy the card, they (scammers) can turn that into other things – they get consumed immediately and you’re left with nothing.”
Gift cards like Visa, require an account activation with a name tied to them, making them more fraud resistant. The bottom line is, if a caller is requiring the purchase of gift cards to avoid their threat, it’s likely a scam.
“When you get those phone calls that are urgent that seem you’re helping somebody or whatever the case is, human nature takes over and unfortunately, we sometimes make bad judgements because of that.” Johnson says if you receive such calls, threatening there’s a warrant out for your arrest unless you buy these gift cards, reach out to law enforcement or your financial institution.
SCOFF was introduced last November, with the intent to educate and empower communities in the fight against fraudulent schemes through proactive sessions as Thursday’s lunch and learn. While no specific dates were announced, organizers said similar sessions are being planned.
