Patrons at the Oaklawn Library had the opportunity to take part in a fraud and identity theft workshop earlier this month led by Amy Schram, a senior community outreach specialist for the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

“Scams, fraud and identity theft are very relevant topics today,” Schram said. “Many people don’t realize that in addition to the business ratings and accreditation section of our website, BBB.org, you can also sign up for a scam alerts email. An email goes out once a week alerting the public to local and national scams worthy of public awareness.”

In addition to the scam alert emails, Schram let participants know that tips are also posted via many social media platforms, including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

“There’s never going to be a shortage of scams,” she said. “It’s very, very simple for our personal information to be obtained from us. If you Google your name, it’s astounding how much of our information is out there. Given that, there are just as simple ways to protect ourselves, by knowing the scam artists’ tactics.”

Schram discussed phone scams, and explained what some of the top red flags should be when receiving a phone call from an unknown caller.

“Free vacations, free money and work from home [or] get rich scams, those are all pretty outlandish and should be red flags. Scam artists are savvy and they are looking to find out information such as where you do your banking, who your mortgage providers are and who your cable company is,” she said. “When they call, they are very calm, cool and collected, and many people fall right into it. The calls seem very real and natural.”

Schram gave an important tip as to how one can tell the difference between a real call and a scam artist’s call.

“If these calls were legitimate, none of these organizations will call you under normal circumstances unless there’s an issue. We encourage individuals to utilize their caller ID feature on their phones and to use their voicemail options. Let the calls go to voicemail. Compare the phone numbers to the business numbers you have. Scam artists will very rarely leave a message, and answering the phone is alerting the person that your number is an active and working number,” she said. “If you do answer, ask the caller for a number to call them back and if they don’t have that information they’ll hang up on you. Put the information aside, verify the number that you know is associated with that business. Don’t be afraid to be firm. Let them know that you don’t give your account numbers out over the phone.”

Schram listed several pressure tactics that phone scam artists often employ when they make their calls.

“They’ll try to tell you it’s the last day of a deal, that your account is in danger or that they are a charity organization. There’s even a grandparents’ scam now where a child calls pretending to be an injured grandchild in need of money. It’s very important that we educate ourselves about these types of current scams,” she said. “Most importantly, under no circumstances should we ever do anything in that first phone call. Always step back, verify, research and then call back.”

Schram discussed email phishing scams, which have become more popular in recent years.

“Phishing scams are incredibly realistic-looking emails impersonating real, official companies. They’re dangerous scams and often include links that they’re trying to get you to click on. Once we click on the links, every bit of information available is given to them, sent over to hackers in about half a second. Be aware of links embedded in emails as well as pop-ups, which are also very dangerous,” she said. “These types of scams can completely crash a computer and the virus may look like nothing has even happened, seemingly everything might look normal, but all of your private information is transferring.”

Credit card scams were another topic covered during the workshop.

“A credit card transaction can be cancelled if it’s determined to be fraudulent. Credit card companies are constantly monitoring our accounts and our spending patterns and they are on alert for purchases that don’t fit our patterns. Credit cards are always the best option for online purchasing,” Schram said. “Debit cards allow money to be immediately extracted from your bank account and can take up to two months to get back. Scammers then have all of your personal bank account information.”

The spending patterns of scammers tend to be almost undetectable at first, Schram said.

“They generally start small, making small purchases here and there on things that you might not notice, especially if you share an account with a spouse or parent. You might not immediately notice these purchases if they’re not outlandish purchases in general. They also know that we’re less likely to investigate and act on small purchases,” she said.

Schram recommended the use of cash or credit cards for restaurant purchases, and recommended that patrons try not to let their cards out of their sight if possible, especially in a restaurant.

“It’s so easy for anyone, not just employees, but patrons, too, to snap a photo in half a second on their phone of someone’s credit card,” she said.

In giving tips for online shopping, besides the use of a credit card, Schram also told the patrons to always look for encrypted numbers, secure sites and well-known, legitimate sites.

“Some sites will let you load your cart and they call and pay offline, rather than putting your card into the computer,” she said. “Nothing is 100 percent safe, there’s no 100 percent guarantee, but there are simple precautions we can take,” she said. “Be sure to always monitory your account statements, make sure everything is accurate, save your receipts and shred them afterwards.”

As Schram finished her presentation, she noted that the Better Business Bureau is there to help people who have fallen victim to unethical business practices.

“We want to be there for those types of needs, but we’d much rather be that precautionary tool. We’d much rather be there before, rather than after,” she said. “It’s not that you can’t trust anyone, it’s just that you can’t trust everyone.”