Last  Friday’s speaker was Liz Berghaus, a financial expert with whom President Ashley was well acquainted.  Liz Berghaus’s career is in the banking world, leading to her expertise on “financial topics”, the topic in this case being “common money scams”
The “Common Money Scams” exposed were four in number:   the “easy money scam”, the “sweetheart scam”,  the “grandparent scam”, and the ”email scam”.
The “easy money scam” is one in which the scammer poses as a stock trader or investment manager and offers the target an opportunity guaranteed to make money by investing in the scammer’s project.  The money so invested eventually disappears as does the scammer..   In the variant portrayed by our speaker the victim is supposedly rewarded with local “gift cards” of allegedly greater value.
The “sweetheart scam”  is one in which the scammer convinces the victim that they are in love and then uses these emotions to bilk money from the victim.  As explained by Ms. Berghaus the person targeted may have been lonely and vulnerable to new email or social media (e.g. Facebook) friends from the recent loss of a spouse.
The “grandparent scam” targets an elderly person. with the scammer posing as a relative in distress or a law enforcement agent.  The target is fold that a grandchild was hospitalized due to a car crash and needs someone to contribute to the patient’s recovery.  Our speaker recommends that the elderly target investigate the claim before falling prey.
The ”email scam” is one in which the scammer uses fraudulent websites to steal the target’s password and personal information such as credit card numbers, addresses, etc.  In the variant expounded a “seller” with a non authentic foreign accent and persuades the victim to purchase via email a non-existent product. the money going to the scammer.
At the end of her informative dissertation Ms Berghaus fielded questions and comments from Arcadia Rotarians (some with a banking background) about possible scams that they personally had encountered and coped with in their own personal lives).