Sheriff Wayne Ivey Helps Protect Seniors From Fraudsters and Evil With 419Eater!

There is "evil in the heart of perpetrators" and we are dealing with "a trusting generation".  Simple words from Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey as he shares yet more important information for seniors on being safe from fraudsters either in person or online.

Your  Great American Senior Show grey-haired Host Sam Yates, discovers more safety tips from Sheriff Ivey and the Sheriff talks about a website, https://www419eater.com .

The amazing website is a new tool you can use to protect against fraudsters and scambaiters!

Transcript

Sam Yates: 0:06

Hello, everyone and welcome to another informative episode of the Florida Business Forum Podcast. Let's open the Florida Business Forum floodgates and let the information begin to flow. Here's your Florida Business Forum information guru and Anchorman Sam Yates. Hello, everyone. I'm Sam Yates. And just as we promised in 2022. Now that we're into a new year, the Florida Business Forum is going to take a look at politics from time to time. For example, if a political figure in a local community or county is having a positive impact on the economic well being of that county, we're certainly going to take a look and talk to that individual. Today's program is a perfect example. I am back in Brevard County with Sheriff Wayne IV and Sheriff IV over the last year has shared a lot of information with us. And Sheriff, I want to thank you for doing that. Welcome back to the program. Oh, absolutely.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 1:08

Sam, thank you. I mean, you're you're out there putting out the information and stuff. We're great partnership,

Sam Yates: 1:13

my pleasure to be partnered. And you know, one of the things that I see in the community is often seniors fall prey to some financial scheme of one sort or another. How can they avoid getting put into that situation?

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 1:29

Yeah, so the easiest way, Sam, I mean, if we were going to break it down and say, Okay, we got we got one shot at telling people how to avoid being victims of frauds and scams and identity theft and everything else. It's to use one of the smallest words in the world, the word no. When used properly, as the most, you know, strong and impacting word, what happens is, what we see is, first of all, let's talk about why do our seniors become victims of these type of financial crimes and things of that nature. Several things feed into that one, they're usually very financially stable, they're at a point in their lives where they've, they've maybe retired or they're getting close to retirement. So they have some sense of financial stability, to have a lot of time on their hands. So they're at home more or they're more susceptible to answer the phone. Three, they're from a generation when your word was your bond, and they take things at face value. And so and in for, and the biggest reason of all, is because of the evil in the heart of the perpetrator, that targets what I believe can be at times our most vulnerable citizens in our community. So you put all of those things together, it's a recipe for disaster. And what we try and encourage our citizens to do you know, you show me a problem in the world, Sam, and I'll show you were part of the solution is education and awareness. And so we try and feed as much information or Crime Prevention Unit does a great job at getting out going to homeowners meetings, Rotary Clubs, churches, senior centers, all of these different places, and just pushing out just tons and tons of information almost almost like drinking out of a firehose at times. But the more of that you can absorb, the better off you are. And so you know, there's a few things that our citizens can do to really hammer and protect themselves. And the first one is, let your voicemail and your answering machine be your friend. If you don't know who it is, if you don't look at your phone and see it, Sam Yates or Wayne it, then don't answer that phone. Let it go to voicemail, let whatever it is, if it's important, they will leave you a message. So you know I use I use that all the time even even if my daughter calls me, I let it go to voicemail because I know she's going to want money. And so I pretend I didn't get the voicemail, you know, so. But what we really try to do is get everybody to start using that free tool. Just don't answer your phone. Let it go to voicemail. When you hear the voicemail. If it's one of those that says your Discover card has been compromised, chances are you don't even have a Discover card, so it couldn't have been compromised. Secondly, they're gonna give you a phone number to call. Don't ever call that number. If you do have a Discover card and American Express or a Visa or MasterCard or whatever it is, look on the back of it in the smallest font possible. They'll have written the 800 salutely. Yeah. Which makes no sense. But but they'll have written an 800 number on the back of that card, call that number. And what you'll most likely find is they're going to say there's nothing wrong with your account. Somebody is trying to pull the wool over on you so so that's that's rule number one. Rule number two is don't open your door for strangers. Don't let strangers approach you. You don't have to be rude. Simply say no thank you and walk away from somebody Um, now if it's Girl Scout selling girl scout cookies, buy those and call me, I will test those because, you know, I need to make sure they're safe. So let's test all of those. But other than that, walk away from it. Because if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The second thing is a lot of people like to toy with these, these fraudsters, the more you talk to them, even though you think you're getting on them, they're getting information from you. And so don't it's, it's fun and everything else to you know, set them up. But don't, you know, we see schemes out there like the grant what we call the grandmother scheme, where your grandchild calls you and says, Grandma been arrested, don't tell Mom and Dad, I need money, fake faults, all of that. The other thing is, you know, be careful what you who you give your social security number to, you know, the social security number was not designed to be used as it is today, it wasn't intended for that it was intended to track your earnings, and now it's become the strongest identifier we have. So be careful with it, it's not just about keeping it in a safe place, it's about holding it in a safe place. And that means not, you know, giving it to somebody, every time they ask you go to the doctor's office, you step up to that little frosty window and they hand you the clipboard and say fill this out, don't fill out your social security number, they already got it, you've been to that doctor before. So you know, be careful who you're giving it to we go by car, first thing we do when we pull up on the car lot is the salesperson comes out, you know, you'd look great right in there. Let me get your social security number so I can get you pre approved, you're going to buy a car, get pre approved for you leave the house, it's very easy to do. Do it through your own, you know, financial institution, all of these little tricks of the trade are great value to us.

Sam Yates: 6:47

Sure, if a lot of those are just common sense that I don't think people use common sense anymore. Well,

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 6:52

again, you have to go back to the generation that we're talking about is a trusting generation. And man, shouldn't we be so blessed to still live in that world where we're, your word was your bond the handshake was was the contract. But we're not, we're not in that world anymore. And so we have to, you know, make sure that we're taking every step. The other thing is there's there's two websites out there that I would encourage people to go to if you're if you're online, go to these two websites, one of them is called 419. eater. Just like somebody like me that likes to eat for one night eater.com. And 419 is the penal code in Nigeria for fraud. And so it shows us all of the overseas fraud, you know, found this cache of gold I need to get back in the country. You know, please send money to Reverend so and so all of those. So this website, catalogs all that and keeps the trends and everything else so you can see what the common trends are. And the other one is Krebs on security. And KrebsOnSecurity is KR E, BB s, I believe krebsonsecurity.com, one word KrebsOnSecurity. And it's more on the technology side. It's more of the scams that you're going to encounter on your computer, through websites and stuff like that, and it keeps you updated. Those two are great guide for keeping us out of trouble.

Sam Yates: 8:14

You know, I'm glad you said about the websites and e mail. I'm a lucky person in the last 24 hours. I have one a surprise from CVS, I have 110 fans, I have one. They're all scams, right? But the average senior out there may not know that. So that information that you passed on,

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 8:34

Here's what I want to tell you. In today's world, nothing's free. And so somebody that's offering you great return on your investment is offering you to be broke is what they're doing. You know, don't don't give people money. Don't talk to people you don't know, if you want to make a donation. This is another place where they get you they they you know, they'll call and say I'm calling for the Firefighters Association or the police benevolence, or the FOP or the state troopers Association, I think is very common. You know, I've been Sheriff for 10 years, and not once have I gotten a check from any of those organizations to help us run this agency. Not once have I gotten a check from any of those organizations that are doing that kind of revenue generation. Do we have the PBA and fop that are staples of our agency? Absolutely. But those people are in direct contact with us they're not out soliciting online for for revenue and stuff. You know so So don't fall for that if you want to donate money to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, the Melbourne Police Department the the SPCA, whomever you want to donate money to pick up the phone call them and ask them where to send that money. And and that way you're assured that your money is going to where you intended to go do

Sam Yates: 9:53

You know I also have to give you a big pat on the back because you end the department are Very, very digitally informed. Now, as a matter of fact, your digital forensic unit just received a major national award. Tell us about that.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 10:10

So, you know, the the forensics, you know, that we do on computers and stuff can range in anything from a really, truly a fraud investigation to a missing child investigation to narcotics, to child pornography. And that team that we have, we have a great partnership with the Secret Service. And when when you look at the the discoveries of that forensics unit, and the the cases that they extract, and they help on and everything else, and they don't just do it for our agency. They're doing it for every agency in Brevard County, local, state and federal agencies. You know, I think if I remember correctly, they give out 50 Awards, the the Secret Service gives out 50 awards, and they're really cool, too. It's a big metal plate. That's, that's perfectly and beautifully engraved and stuff, but they give out 50 a year to their top producers out of their forensic ratio blinds nationwide. We got three of them this year. So three of the 50 went to us. And it's just really amazing to see, you know, our team have that kind of ability to impact and save lives and you know, bravo to them. They're so hard working and stuff and and they don't let me around any of that stuff. Because given me a cell phones dangerous enough, so let me around their equipment would be bad.

Sam Yates: 11:35

Ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you something. The sheriff may be saying they don't let him around things. But he is the leader of doing things. And when I first met you, over a year ago, we were talking about crime in Brevard County and the amazing progress that you have made fighting crime. So that unit is a testimony in part to the overall crime fighting activities under your department.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 12:03

Yeah, we've been very blessed, you know, the smartest thing that we did when we first took over, you know, and I followed a great Sheriff, I followed Jack Parker, who had done a great job with the agency and lowering the crime rate and impacting the community. So I had a great foundation to launch from, and I will tell you that we set out a goal to lower our crime rate. And we strategized, we met in a room much like you and I are sitting in right now. And we strategized about how do we do it. And the first thing we knew was we had to create a partnership with our citizens. And the reality is we want to protect everybody. But the likelihood of us standing next to you when you're about to be the victim of crime is slim to none. So what we had to do was prepare you to protect yourself. And so through creating a partnership, and through flooding you with information and, and stuff about what's going on, we give you the ability to be the first line of defense for you and your family and your business. And so that was the that was the model we put in. That was the model we pushed, we had to be able to reach you. So we created different avenues, whether that was reaching you through email, through in person presentations at Homeowners Association, or the Rotary Club Kiwanis or wherever it was, whether that was reaching you through our faith based organizations, or reaching you through our social media footprint, we had to be able to reach you and give you crime prevention information before you become a victim not after. And so that was that was the goal. And it has worked. We have lowered our crime rate almost 52% in 10 years.

Sam Yates: 13:44

And that is one of the reasons I enjoy doing this program because it makes me feel that I'm helping a little bit

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 13:50

and it's it ties right in Sam to that partnerships, you know, here here are public and private entities that are partnering together to give crime prevention information to a dynamic of our community. And you know, we can't reach everybody through in person so having those partnerships I heard I know you know Mike Blake, He's the mayor of cocoa 30 year school teacher, just such a great guy. And I heard Mike Blake say something one time and and I I always give him credit for this although I'd like to say it was my idea but it wasn't. But I heard Mike Blake say one time that there's all sorts of ships in the ocean. There are battleships there are cruise ships. There are cargo ships. You know, in our community. We even have spaceships, Sam, but nothing columns, rough seas, like partnerships, friendships and relationships. And so we set out to build partnerships, friendships and relationships with our community. And in doing so we collectively not not just the 1700 men and women of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, not just Is the Melbourne police department of the Titusville Police Department, Satellite Beach bar Police Department, all of us as partners with our citizens have have set off a course here of lowering our crime rate that has worked like none of us ever imagined.

Sam Yates: 15:14

Sheriff I'm going to wrap up here shortly but my turn to share a little something with you. In past life contacts, one of my good friends is a former Sheriff Bob Crowder. I know Bob very well. I knew Bob as as a road patrol deputy and have followed him through his tenure as sheriff and his retirement. In a number of years ago, at a media release, he got into trouble for saying that there was a deadbeat dad and deadbeat dad, you need to pay your damn bills. And one of the people named in the release was, at that time more than a million dollars behind on child support. The man I am not going to identify sued the sheriff and said, You can't say that. I am not a deadbeat dad, I owe a million dollars. But I'm not a deadbeat dad, Sheriff took it all the way to the Florida Supreme Court said in a nutshell, because I'm not an attorney. Sheriff Crowder, you can say that in your official capacity, because that's your job. And I'm giving you some thoughts here because you recently got into a little bit of a brouhaha over we'll have fugitives from someone saying hey, you know, I'm not a fugitive. But you have that capacity. And all I'm saying sheriff is give them hell!

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 16:37

Well, I will tell you that and you said you know a little brouhaha. What was created by a local media outlet here. And I say created because it is absolutely a joke. When the truth comes out. Everybody, nobody would be surprised. Because everybody knows what we do here we do with diligence, and we do to protect our community. So when the truth finally comes out, and as I like to say the truth be told, nobody's going to be surprised. They're all just gonna give Go figure. So but you're right. And you know, I worked with Bob Crowder for many years when I was with ftld. And I realized that yeah, he was the sheriff and Martin County when I was a I was fdlp in Fort Pierce from 1993 to 2000. And I worked with him and actually, the current Sheriff down there will Snyder and I worked cases together. Back then and now he was Sheriff of Martin and I'm Sheriff of Brevard.

Sam Yates: 17:32

small world. Yeah, well, Sheriff, I know there's some times you can't go into all the details. So ladies and gentlemen, as your gray haired host here I get to cut through and give my opinion and why do you get to say an opinion, Sam, because I can do that. And that's what I'm all about because I support law enforcement and I support the job that you are doing here. So thank you. We appreciate that,

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 17:57

sir. Great to be with you.

Sam Yates: 17:58

Sheriff, can you come back at some time in the future?

Sheriff Wayne Ivey: 18:00

Anytime you're ready, man.

Sam Yates: 18:01

Very good. Ladies and gentlemen, we have that on the record. So looking forward to that and in the meantime, have a great day everybody. The Florida Business Forum is dedicated to showcasing Florida businesses and CEOs of all sorts to promote their business or not for profit in the only business forum of its type in Florida. Thanks for tuning in. And remember, the Florida Business Forum is now accepting guest applications. Have a great day everyone and stay tuned for more business