Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 141-Inside the $3.4B Senior Scam Epidemic—and How to Fight Back
A single call can flip a calm afternoon into panic: a “grandchild” in trouble, a “bank” warning of fraud, a “government agent” demanding payment. We break down how those moments are engineered—fear, urgency, and trust—and share a practical, repeatable way to shut scams down before they drain savings.
Connie Deveaux of Assisted Living Advisors returns to unpack the $3.4B senior scam surge reported to the FBI’s IC3 and why impersonation has become the attacker’s favorite tool. From fake IRS texts and USPS delivery links to AI‑cloned voices that mimic a loved one, we map the playbook scammers use to keep people on the line, isolate them, and push them into fast, untraceable payments. Connie shares a real five‑hour “jury duty” scheme that cost a tech‑savvy relative $4,000—and exactly which red flags were missed along the way.
We also get concrete about prevention. You’ll learn the pause–verify–report framework, how to confirm identities using known numbers and official .gov sites, and the household rules that make families hard targets: no gift cards or crypto for “official” payments, a two‑person check for large transfers, bank alerts, and two‑factor authentication. We talk through scripts to end high‑pressure calls, simple web hygiene for spotting spoofed sites, and why speaking up—without shame—helps neighbors avoid the same traps.
Connie announces a free scam‑awareness workshop coming to the River Vale Library this November, with deeper training on red flags and prevention strategies. Want updates or senior living guidance in Bergen County and beyond? Follow care for aging parents on Instagram, email Connie at connie@assistedlivingadvisors.com, or call 813‑541‑8584. If this conversation helps you or someone you love, subscribe, share it with family, and leave a review to help more neighbors stay safe.
Assisted Living Advisers
Connie Deveaux
813-541-8584
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 01:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. We are rejoined today. I'm really happy to have back to the show . She is from Assistant Living Advisors and basically covers Bergen County among other areas in New Jersey. Connie, welcome to the show.
Speaker 02:Hi, Doug. Thank you so much for having me again. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 01:Yeah. So, you know, the first time we met, uh, we basically learned about you and and your background and why you do what you do. But today we're gonna get a bit more specific and talk about uh kind of leveraging off your article that's in Rivervale Neighbors this month. It's an article about protecting our loved ones from scams and digital scams, I guess.
Speaker 02:Yeah.
Speaker 01:So um, you know, like we were saying before we came on air, we've all been, I mean, it's amazing at how many times a week, I guess, I get a text message that's you know, looks like it's from the post office or looks like it's from UPS or looks like it's from Amazon. And you know, I'm always hesitant to click on anything, but there have been times where we've been, you know, drawn in and duped for because these guys are professionals, man. They know what they're doing.
Speaker 02:They do.
Speaker 01:Um, and if you're older, if you didn't grow up with the computer, I'm sure it's even more of a um of a threat. So, you know, why don't we just kind of dig into that?
Speaker 02:Yeah, absolutely. And and I, you know, you really, really hit the the nail on the head is um we've all been there, you know, myself included. Um, and it is these these scammers use uh tactics to really uh take advantage of us. And so um I'm so glad that we're speaking about this topic because it is a huge threat, um, not only, you know, to you know, the nation as a whole, but really, really the numbers against seniors is growing. And um, you know, according to the FBI's like internet, so there is a specific crime complaint center that focuses only on these digital scams or telephone scams and things like that. And um, the FBI created this crime complaint center, internet crime complaint center, they call it um IC3. Um, and it was reported that older adults um reported more than $3.4 billion in scam losses last year.
Speaker 01:Just in a year, wow.
Speaker 02:Just in a year, $3.4 billion. Um overall, in all of you know, um, the US, that number was about $12.5 billion. But I thought, you know, just the $3.4 billion in seniors alone is is such a huge number. And so the biggest, the biggest threat, the main, as you mentioned, the um, you know, the Amazon text that you get, the IRS, the um post office is a big one now, um, is those impersonation scams that makes up for a great, great majority um of the scams, about 40% or so um of those scams come via impersonation scams.
Speaker 01:So you know, I I heard uh somebody talking about this recently, and I had just paid my quarterly taxes to the IRS. And when you go on the IRS.gov website, first of all, you gotta make sure if you type in IRS that the first couple of websites that come up are not the IRS website. So you got to make sure you're on IRS.gov. But when I went to make a payment, my computer popped up uh with a warning saying this site is not safe. Do you want to continue? And I'm like, well shit, I gotta pay my taxes. So I went ahead and did it anyway. And I'm like, but I'm like, man, I was scared that holy shit, I have to put in all my information, my address, my social security, you know, all that stuff, and then paid. So, but you know, it was legit, but it's it's scary.
Speaker 02:It's scary, yeah. And and it's so it's scary. It can be, and that that fear is really what a lot of these um scammers um, you know, prey on. That's how they get you, right? They take advantage of you know, fear, your sense of urgency. You're like, yeah, I gotta pay my taxes, I gotta get this done. So you had the urgency, you had the fear. So um, and and you trust, right? It was a trusted um government agency, the IRS, right? So that's really um how they kind of rope us all in, um, and especially seniors, as you mentioned, who may not be as tech savvy, um, you know, using the phone or um have education on uh links and things like that via email or stuff that, you know, text messages that pop up. So um what I wanted to okay, go ahead.
Speaker 01:Yeah, I was gonna go ahead because I wanted to ask about AI and how that's also um, you know, changing the way people try to scam me because my parents got a call from someone pretending to be my nephew, you know, their grandson saying they just got arrested and they need money right away.
Speaker 02:Yeah.
Speaker 01:And uh luckily my parents are like, what? You know, they didn't do it, but it was very, very um they went along with it for a while before they realized, you know, let me call him myself while I'm on the phone with this person and see if it's really him. But you know, through AI, they can kind of replicate voices makes it really absolutely 100%.
Speaker 02:They AI has um there's so much going on with AI. And and you know, I think, you know, like any sort of new technology that comes about, right? We saw this when the internet was new, right? There are lots and lots of pros, but you know, people who are criminals and who want to take advantage, um, they can utilize this new technology to do so um very easily. Um, and so as you said, AI does allow for you to um replicate voices, it allows you to create voices. And that grandchildren um example that you use, that has probably been one of the oldest scams that has been used. Um, you know, that goes back for years. And as you mentioned, the way that it works is that, you know, you'll get a phone call from someone saying, Hey grandma, it's me. They'll never say their name. But if grandma says, Is this you, Bobby? Now they have a name. And so they will run with that, right? And so grandma being, you know, wanting to help out their grandchild is going to do whatever it is that they say. And um, you made a good point. One of the major ways that you can um one of the points that I talk about in the article um on how to stop or spot a scam is to verify, like you said, like let me hang up and actually like call back, right? Let me just make sure this is a real, if this isn't my real grandson, let me call Bobby from the number that I have for him to make sure that it's him, or let me call his parents to see if you know they've spoken with him. So I you know, I I I I put that in there. So verifying, like stop, hang up, get off the phone, verify, call back to a well, you know, a known number, um, you know, trusted number before you do anything.
Speaker 01:So yeah, yeah. And you know, so why why would you write an article like this and bring this to the forefront? Because you're a senior living placement specialist.
Speaker 02:Yeah.
Speaker 01:So I know why not write about something that is a direct kind of advertorial that says, hey, hire me, I'll help place your family, your loved one, your parent, or you, yourself into a great senior community in Bergen County. Why not write something like that? And rather than uh an article that's really, I mean, you're not in fraud protection, you're not at law enforcement. So so, you know, why offer this kind of advice?
Speaker 02:Well, you know, because in and I I had uh spoke about this uh the first time you and I um met here on the Good Neighbor podcast. And education is so near and dear to my heart. I think knowledge is power. And so I think that the more that we know about lots of topics that are affecting, you know, us as a whole, as a community, um, but also um where seniors are being greatly impacted and affected and taken advantage of. Um, I just think it's so important to spread this awareness, to remove the stigma from these types of things and to educate people on how to spot scams, like the red flags to look out for, um, and you know, to help their families too. I personally, as I mentioned at the beginning, um, I have been scammed twice. And looking back, it's though the way that they got me was I was in a situation like you. Fortunately, the you that IRS was not a scam, right? You went to pay your taxes. But mine, mine was, and I was in a a situation where I had some desperation, I was fearful, and I had a sense of urgency to pay something. And um, I was absolutely scammed. And at the end of it, I felt so ashamed. And I, you know, because I consider myself to be an intelligent woman. Right.
Speaker 01:And um not have seen this.
Speaker 02:Yeah. And but most recently I did attend a seminar at a senior living community um where they brought in a um lieutenant, um, you know, uh law enforcement uh person to uh speak about crime. And we thought, you know, he asked, you know, is crime down or is it on the rise? And this, and most people said crime is down overall. We feel like it's a much safer place that we live in. However, digital crime is on the rise and it is taking people, as I said, for billions of dollars. Um, just last year, that $3.4 billion in scams is just for seniors alone, is astronomical. Um, but after that, probably two months after that um seminar that I attended, I had a loved one, a very dear loved one, who was scammed. And I consider this person to be extremely bright, um, very tech savvy. Um, but this the scam started, they they called her, they called um my loved one and pretended to be a government agency and told them that if they, you know, had this outstanding um uh contempt of court for not showing up for jury duty. And and this person, you know, was you know, law-abiding, wants to follow the rules and you know, all of these things. And they had this person on the phone, they had my loved one on the phone for what amounted to about five hours just drilling and drilling and drilling, trying to get more and more money um out of them. And at the end, they lost about four thousand dollars and um tried to recover it. Sometimes your banks will um help you to recover it if it's reported immediately. Um, but um depending on the amount, you know, they may not be able to get you back all that you want, um, all that you lost. So yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 01:So what are the tips that you um, you know, you kind of outline like four or five tips to spot and stop scam? So what would those be?
Speaker 02:Yeah, so so the tips that I wrote about in the um in the article, super, super important. You have to pause. I have like three things that I that I'm going to be talking about in in a workshop, and I'll talk a little bit more about that workshops that I'm gonna be having in the area. Um, but um, and I call it pause, verify, and report. Um, those are kind of like the three things that you want to do, but you want to pause. If you get a call or you get an email or you get a text saying you need to pay something, you definitely want to take a breath, take a minute before you rush into action. Um, because as I mentioned, scammers really um prey on the fact that you are a trusting individual, they prey on your sense of urgency and they prey on the fear that you have. So no one should be pressuring you to send money immediately to them. And if they are, you should take that as a red flag. Additionally, if they are asking you to pay via gift cards, Apple Pay, um, wire transfers, any type of those things, stop and then you want to verify, right? You want to do, like you said, like with the grandparent thing. So that's the the the second tip. It would be to verify. If you are on the phone, you want to verify, uh, you want to hang up, hang up immediately, and then you want to verify that number. You want to call back on a known number. They say they're calling from the IRS, they're calling from the police department. You want to call the IRS number, right? You want to call your local police department and verify that that is who is calling you. You want to call your grandson from the number that you have for him and verify that that is him. If that, if the person on the other line is adamant about you not hanging up the phone, that is a huge red flag that that is a scam. Additionally, with websites and things like that, you want to verify the website. As you mentioned, you got a little um flag that said this is not a secure site and so forth. So, you know, you can, you know, take that as a red flag as well. Um and then, like I said, you know, you you want to report about it. You want to report it, you want to talk about it. A lot of um times these things are not reported. So even though, like I mentioned, um there's a uh overall report of $12.5 billion to scams that were lost in 2024, that's just the reported number. A lot of times these things go, yeah, they go unreported. And why? That's right. Exactly. People are embarrassed. Um, they feel like they like they have done something so wrong. And um, but that's where, you know, again, knowledge is power. The education is power, right? Talk to someone you trust, report it. It has happened to us, it happens to the best of us. And, you know, I like to say, as I said, you know, I consider myself to be an intelligent person, my loved one to be very bright as well. So this has nothing to do with intelligence whatsoever, right? At all. It really has to do with these cameras just being very tactical and um very diligent in getting what they want. So yeah, you want to report it, talk to someone, talk about it. Um, and that's a way that we can really just again release the stigma surrounding it so that um, you know, people don't feel so alone and we have that education about it.
Speaker 01:So speaking about education, so you are going to be doing a um, I guess like a seminar on this topic and other things in Rivervale.
Speaker 02:Yes. So I'm very, very excited. Um, I will be um hosting a free community workshop um this fall, it'll be in November on scam awareness. And at that workshop, I'm gonna dive a little bit deeper into the red flags and those prevention strategies. Um, and so yes, that will be held at the Rivervale Library um in November, um, as well as other locations.
Speaker 01:And so do you have the exact date?
Speaker 02:Yes. So Rivervale Um Library will either be November 8th or November 9th. Um and I'll get the time. Yes, yes. Um, so let me double check. I want to say it was the 8th or 9th. Let me no of November, not October.
Speaker 01:Right, right, yeah.
Speaker 02:So I'm sorry, November 7th.
unknown:Okay.
Speaker 02:November 5th or the 7th. My apologies. November 5th or the 7th.
Speaker 00:Okay.
Speaker 02:Um, and so I will have a time to get more information on that. You can stay tuned. I will, you know, certainly um be happy to give you that information, Doug, and you can post it. But also, um, if you're, you know, whoever is listening, if you want more information on that, if that resonates with you, you can follow me on Instagram um at care for aging parents um for additional resources and updates um about the workshops once um, you know, they are officially announced.
Speaker 01:Great. And how would people get in touch with you otherwise, like for for um you know, for senior living services?
Speaker 02:Sure.
Speaker 01:So you can see senior living placement services.
Speaker 02:Yes. So um with uh you can reach me at Connie at assisted living advisors.com. That is my email address, or you can call me directly. Um, my number is 813-541-8584. Uh, I know some people if we're talking about scams, they might see that number pop up and they're calling me with this, you know, a weird area code. It's a Tampa area code. I have I've had the same number for over 25 years, and so um it is a valid number. So, you know, please don't be leery about that.
Speaker 01:Right, right. All right. Well, this is all great, great useful information. Um, I'm sure everyone listening has been through a situation where no one knows someone who has. Yeah, we've certainly all been approached. So, you know, it's really important for you if you have a parent or a brother or sister who's, you know, maybe a little bit older and more vulnerable to definitely take a look at this article. And um, if you have any questions, give Connie a call. So uh thanks again for joining us, and you and I will be right back.
Speaker 02:Thanks, Doug.
Speaker 00:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen.com. That's gmpbergen.com or call 201 298 8325.