SMYRNA – Officials from the state Attorney General’s office are holding a forum Thursday in Smyrna to inform seniors about international mail and Internet scams that have duped people out of thousands of dollars locally.
The “Smart Seniors Forum” starts at 6 p.m. in the town hall, located on the corner of Academy and School streets in the Village of Smyrna. Ways of spotting and avoiding investment fraud, identity theft, Internet cons, counterfeit checks and phony sweepstakes scams will be discussed.
A presentation on Power of Attorney and health proxy clauses will also be given by the county Area Agency on Aging.
Penny Eggleston, Smyrna resident and NBT Bank employee in Sherburne, attended the same forum in September in Sherburne and afterwards helped set one up for the people in her hometown.
“I see a lot of (scams) come in and want people to know about them,” said Eggleston, who is also EMS Captain of the Smyrna Fire Department. “Banks are getting smarter and more alert to them. We need the community to be more alert, too.”
The event is aimed at seniors, but is open to the general public.
A con of late involves people receiving phony lottery checks in the mail. A letter attached says they can claim the prize, sometimes listed in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, if they send in a $3-4,000 fee. By the time the fake check is processed and denied, victims have already sent out their own money.
“The point of the forum is not to get people scared, but to get the message out there,” said Eggleston. “With the economy the way it is, no one has got the money just to throw away.”
