ST. PAUL – A capacity crowd of seniors from across the St. Paul region received the early Christmas gift of great information as they gathered at St. Paul’s Ukrainian Cultural Centre on Nov. 20 for the St. Paul Regional FCSS Seniors Festival.
A lineup of 10 organizations were on hand to welcome the guests and to provide details on upcoming and ongoing programs at tables that lined the centre’s west side, while the Racette School’s Community Awareness Team, which had earlier helped set up the hall for the event, brought tea and coffee to welcome everyone to the Festival.
“We’re here to promote connection and engagement,” new Regional FCSS director Brenda Billo said as she welcomed the audience. “We need one another.”
Billo introduced the day’s special guest, who many recognized from her days as an investigative reporter. Julie Matthews was previously Global Edmonton’s Trouble Shooter and also provided scam alerts on CFCW Radio before becoming a peace officer and transitioned into her current role as a consumer protection expert and fraud prevention educator.
Receiving “a hundred calls or emails a day in a department of one,” she started working as a consumer advocate, Matthews said. “I have a true passion for talking about the latest scams. The best weapon is education, and I travel around Alberta to do that.”
When hiring a business, Matthews told the seniors, “Do a Google search and see the complaints, the good and bad reviews. Check with the Better Business Bureau. Check their licenses, most bad companies don’t have one. And you need to know that verbal quotes don’t count, only those that are written down. We need to protect ourselves and a written quote also protects the business.”
She advised the seniors, “Don’t pay in cash, it can’t be traced. Read the fine print, the more there is, the more important it is to read it. If something goes wrong, they can use (not reading the fine print) as an argument.”
Getting multiple written quotes, making sure the contractor has both a license and Workmen’s Compensation coverage are important, “And don’t prepay unless they have a prepaid contractor license, they are required to put up a bond to get that.”
Asphalt scams are trending, Matthews said, with a family near Thorhild losing $56,000 to a company that id the job, “but it was terrible quality” and soon fell apart. “They actually go in areas where a county is paving and say they have leftovers.”
Grandparent schemes are also prevalent, “and the callers wait for you to fill in the blanks” by providing names, or they read obituaries to find out the names of family members. Canada Revenue scammers also use that tactic, she noted. “They pretend to be police officers and lawyers and by using artificial intelligence technology, makes the caller sound like your grandchild.” Actually, she said, “99.9 per cent of grandchildren wouldn’t call if they were in trouble.” A family password is one way to ensure that the person calling is really a member of the family.
Bank manager scams, grant scams, computer tech scams, rob calling, email scams, scams targeting charities and sports organizations are all common ways to target seniors and non-seniors, “And I’m not here to scare you. Information is power,” Matthews said
Buy-and-sell scams are common and she advised, “Don’t send money until you see it in person. Twenty-five people sent deposits for an air conditioner and went to a home in Edmonton that didn’t have an air conditioner for sale. You can pretend to be anyone on Facebook.” Seniors are far from the only victims, with agricultural scams reaping deposits for equipment that didn’t exist.
Matthews wrapped up with cautions against romance scams. “They’re everywhere, and many have out-of-country locations. Many don’t ask for money right away, they can be in it for the long haul.” Scammers even created false profiles for Kevin Costner, one lady sending him money every month until she feared losing her home because she was so intent on supporting him, who she believed had fallen on hard times.
“Don’t send money to anyone you’ve never met. They are sucker bait,” she concluded before the dinner break.
Following a mouthwatering dinner of turkey and all the trimmings, Matthews returned to answer questions, before Billo introduced Deni McArthur from the Community Adult Learning Program (CALP) at Portage College, speaking briefly on digital skills courses, and Jaime Gehring of the Lakeland Centre for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder.
St. Paul Arts Foundation had a special treat for the seniors, with the glittering Sugarplum Fairy from their upcoming performance of The Nutcracker Ballet, Olivia Akitt of Lamont taking to the stage for a graceful solo dance.
The afternoon wound up with prize draws for gifts and poinsettias, before everyone headed home after an enjoyable and informative day out.
