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Seminar gives clues to detecting fraud
Law enforcement experts say retirees are a prime target of con artists, mail scams and bogus repair schemes.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published March 31, 2006
At first Neal Desch thought the extra $2,700 in money orders was an honest mistake. A woman who had responded to his Internet ad to rent half of his Apollo Beach home had sent $4,000 - not the $1,300 she owed for a security deposit. She asked Desch: Could he please send her a check with the amount she overpaid? Desch, head of security at Kings Point and a retired detective, held the money orders to the light. He showed them to a friend, an ex-homicide detective from Chicago, who agreed they looked real. Then a post office employee he knew took one look at them and stopped Desch with this message: "It's a scam.'' If someone with a knowing eye hadn't stopped him, he said, he would have deposited the money orders and sent a check to the woman, possibly before the bank could alert him. He decided if even someone with his law enforcement background could almost be taken in, retirees in the area needed some advice on how to avoid con-artists. He called Robert Thornton, the Hillsborough County sheriff's community resource deputy for Sun City Center, and the two helped organize a conference last week in Kings Point. More than 100 people came to learn about ways to avoid fraud and scams. Now, Thornton and Desch are planning a similar seminar in Sun City Center. "This population is a prime target,'' Desch said. The seminar will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Florida Room of the Atrium Building. Desch and Thornton say they regularly hear about attempts to con residents of Sun City Center and Kings Point with everything from bogus housing repair offers to mail solicitations that offer lottery winnings in exchange for a so-called handling fee. The seminar will include experts on consumer protection and how to avoid scams that arrive by mail. "We want to continuously educate this population here,'' Desch said. Saundra Amrhein can be reached at 661-2441 or amrhein@sptimes.com.
[Last modified March 30, 2006, 14:19:46]
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