Mesquite PD gives presentation on fraud prevention

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

Residents of Mesquite gathered at the First Baptist Church on Monday, April 22 to hear a Fraud Alert and Protection outreach program put on by the Mesquite Police Department. Detective Ian McOmie gave the presentation and answered questions from the audience.

Live testimony was given by local residents who have been victims of fraud in the past. Each of these accounts emphasized how convincing the scammer was. Two people were even convinced their scammers were working with a government fraud protection agency.

“The best defense against fraud is knowing the signs to watch for,” McOmie said. “Anyone wanting money up-front, or asking you to pay with a gift card or bit coin is probably a scam.”

McOmie emphasized that the IRS, Social Security Administration, and utility companies do not call you on the phone. Rather they contact you in writing through the mail.

“Scammers are good at hacking phone numbers, and they even hacked the MPD emergency number,” McOmie said. “If in doubt hang up and call the number in your phone book back and ask if someone just called you.”

McOmie gave some fraud stats. In 2021, the FBI had 847,376 complaints of fraud. A reported $4.2 billion was lost by business and personal scams in 2020. The highest loss was victims in the 60+ age range. Compromising business scams and romance scams were the most financially devastating.

Phishing on the computer is also very popular, McOmie said. He advised that people not answer unknown emails that want recipients to take an action like clicking on a link, or open an attachment. “If you hover your mouse over the link, a fake one will usually have a different address showing in the hover,” McOmie said.

“Ransomware hijacks your computer, warning you not to turn it off,” he said. “They want you to call a specific number or click on a link and then they will ask for money, gift cards, or bitcoin to release your computer. Businesses lose a lot of money this way because they need to get back on line.”.

The scammers are getting more and more sophisticated. “If it is too good to be true, it is probably a scam.” said McOmie. “If in doubt check it out.”
The audience had quite a few questions. McOmie took time to answer each one.

The evening ended with the First Baptist Church hosting a pulled pork meal for attendees.