Be careful out there! Don’t get scammed or robbed.
Don’t leave your purse or other important items in a grocery cart.
Just the other day a woman at the grocery store left her purse in her cart and walked at least 15 feet away from the cart. Someone could have easily grabbed the purse and ran away.
Don’t leave your purse in a car while shopping, unless you know you have a great security system.
Recently there was a report in our local small town newspaper where someone left there purse in an unlocked car while shopping at a big box store. The purse was stolen while she was in the store.
Close your purse when not in use.
Don’t leave money, purses, important papers, etc. in your car when it is parked at your residence.
Lock your car when it is parked at your residence.
Don’t answer your door unless you know the person at the door.
If someone stops their car to ask you for directions or other information. Stay as far away from the car as possible.
You can always say you don’t have the answer and move on, even if you do know the answer. Your kindness may result in the person being mean to you or trying to hurt you or rob you.
Don’t give out private information on the telephone. This one may be hard since you sometimes make a call to a provider (e.g. credit card company, physician, medical provider). If you make the call and are confident the phone number is correct for the provider, then you should be okay. However, if someone calls you asking for private information, you should decline and hangup. If you feel the caller might be legitimate, then call the provider using a phone number you know goes to that provider’s offices, not a phone number provided by the caller.
Don’t send anyone money unless you can confirm there is a legitimate need.
If someone calls you and says a family member needs money, hangup and call a member of the family that will know more about the situation. If there are no other family members to call, then call your local police department to see if they can help or recommend someone who can help.
If someone calls you and says you have won some money but need to send money to collect the winnings, hangup. You have won nothing.
If someone calls you and says you owe money, hangup. You can call the provider directly using a phone number you know goes directly to the creditor to find out if there is a debt in need of payment. Do not call a phone number provided by the caller.
If someone calls you saying they are with a government agency (e.g. IRS, police, FBI, etc.) with what you feel may be threatening information, hangup. Even if the call is not “threatening”, you should not provide private information during the incoming call. Just let the caller know you will contact the appropriate agency directly. Contact the government agency directly using a phone number that you know goes to the agency’s offices, not a phone number provided by the caller. If the call gets out of hand, persistent, harassing, call your local police department to see if they can help or recommend someone who can help.
Don’t open emails if you do not know what they are from. If you do open an unsolicited email, but you do not know who it is from, DO NOT click on any links or open any attachments. Even if you do know who the email is from, you might think twice before clicking on links or opening attachments. Many people accidentally forward bad links and files/attachments. If the email contains something that interests you, instead of opening a link, go to your computer browser window (Google Chrome, Microsoft Explorer, etc.) and search for the company/link directly. Note, we have received emails from someone we know very well only to find that their email was scammed/ripped off and used to send out bogus emails.
Don’t send private information via email unless you are confident your email is secure and the recipient’s email is secure. Can you ever be that confident?