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A fishy FasTrak toll, cryptocurrency request or a message from an illegitimate email address may all point to one thing — fraud.
Spreading awareness of scams such as these and safety-related tips has become a multiyear goal for Livermore Police Department Reserve Officer Don Swanson.
In fall of 2023, he began giving ad hoc presentations on how to recognize and avoid becoming a victim of in-person, phone and online scams. Since then Swanson has reached approximately 2,500 community members through 56 events at senior centers in Livermore and large senior gatherings.
While geared toward seniors, Swanson said all age groups can benefit from increasing their awareness of scams, especially in cases where children help their senior parents with technology.
“The only way to combat this is education,” Swanson said of scams. “We’re not going to find this with extra patrol cars on the street. It’s going to be talking to people and educating the public about it.”
There are hundreds of ways that people can be swindled out of money, Swanson said during an exclusive presentation for Livermore Vine. Additionally, the frequency of scams is accelerating as more people are learning how to do it.
Seniors can be especially vulnerable to scams because they didn’t grow up with current-day technology, Swanson said.
“These scammers are quite good at what they do, very convincing,” Swanson said. “For not the trained eye, it’s easy for individuals to fall prey to it.”
In recent years, Swanson has seen two Livermore seniors swindled out of their life savings.
Both residents were convinced to purchase gold, he said. After it was delivered to their house, scammers offered to secure the precious metal. But instead of storing it for safekeeping, thieves took the gold worth a combined value of approximately $2.2 million. All without a trace.
“When I see stuff like that happening, it upsets me,” Swanson said. “I don’t like seeing anyone be preyed on. Everybody deserves protection and I see our seniors as one of the most vulnerable in our community.”
The two recent cases in Livermore mirror a common trend in scamming, wherein stolen money oftentimes cannot be retrieved. At times, the police can only advise victims on how to protect themselves from further scams, Swanson said.
“Out of this entire presentation I do, they need to secure their email account,” Swanson said of advice to audience members.
Likened to the “information kingdom”, a scammer can reset various account logins with access to a victim’s email, he explained. Essentially, a thief could drain bank accounts or make online orders.
In an effort to prevent email break-ins, Swanson recommends a unique password and two-factor authentication for accounts.
As for in-person thefts, staying alert serves as a major deterrent, Swanson said. Be especially vigilant to those who are showing extreme interest in you or encroach on your personal space, he added.
Being alert also means demonstrating that awareness to others, he explained.
“They’re looking for somebody that’s not paying attention,” Swanson said of potential thieves.
As seen in security camera footage from Swanson’s presentation, something could be stolen in a matter of seconds. In the recording, a shopper is picking fruit from a grocery aisle. A woman steps between the shopper and her purse, which sits in a nearby cart. The woman then acts like she is picking fruit too, but is actually rifling through the purse under the cover of a produce bag.
As for vehicle-related thefts, criminals are looking for backpacks and laptops, or anything seemingly valuable. They can break into a car to swipe something in under five seconds, given a tool called a center punch, Swanson said.
To prepare, Swanson suggests travelers minimize their items and avoid placing bags in the passenger seat of a car.
If personal belongings are needed, always hide them before arriving at a destination because suspects will commonly wait in a parking lot to see where people hide items, he said. This makes it really easy for the suspect to find valuables.
In case of an incident, know your location at all times, Swanson said. This will be among the things an emergency operator will ask of a caller.
In addition to in-person theft, there can also be dangers through the phone, Swanson said.
Don’t feel like you have to pick up every call, especially since caller ID may be inaccurate, Swanson said. If you do pick up, don’t provide personal or private information to people you don’t know.
One way to avoid phone scams is to establish a password or phrase among family and friends to identify callers, according to Swanson.
As for online scams, fraud email addresses and malicious links are just some of the cons to be aware of, he said.
Swanson encourages any victim of scams to report it to local authorities and the Federal Trade Commission.
Large groups can request LPD’s scam and safety presentations via the department website at police.livermoreca.gov.
