Ralston Police are making sure seniors know what to do with the daily onslaught of scam phone calls and letters.
Seniors at the Ralston Senior Center know the drill.
If you get a suspicious phone call you should...
“Hang up the phone,” said Leora Fuller. “I've only lived in Ralston 60 years."
"I hung up,” said Dorothy Schultz. “(The police) said, 'hang up,' I hung up."
“I have tried to tell them I'm a U.S. Marshal to get rid of them calls,” said Gary Walters. “It don't do any good.”
At the Ralston Senior Center, residents and neighbors know what to do if they get sketchy letters in the mail.
“If you get a letter from the U.N. Secretary saying you've got some money, what would you do with that letter?” I asked.
“Burn it,” Walters said before laughing. “You don't get anything for nothing."
Ralston Police Chief Ron Murtaugh says his officers are impressed with how knowledgeable the seniors his officers met with are about avoiding scams.
"The group here for the luncheon are already skeptical, which is good,” Murtaugh said. “They question a lot of different things which is excellent. They're going to be our first line leaders. They're going to be out front of stuff. I'm confident that they're not going to get scammed."
While most of the seniors at the Ralston center know how to protect themselves from scammers, Murtaugh says elderly people get victimized every day.
“When they come to us, we're like their last hope that they can get their money back and it's really heartbreaking when we tell them that because of the type of scam they're a victim to, there's very little chance they can get their money back."
People are encouraged to never open emails from strangers and not download or click on links in attachments.
The best advice is from the Ralston seniors we interviewed: hang up on strangers and shred sketchy letters.
