AARP has launched a “Fraud Watch” network.
It's designed to help combat the growing fraud problem some senior citizens have experienced -- including such things as identity theft.
AARP held a training session in Bismarck for about 20 volunteers. They, in turn, will talk to their friends and neighbors about preventing fraud.
"The more information we have, the more we can get it out there that these things are happening, and you need to be so very, very careful," said AARP North Dakota director Janis Cheney. "Do not provide any personal information, and certainly no financial information, over the phone to anyone who has called you."
Don Bitz of Bismarck has experienced fraud first hand. He says his identity was stolen from a cell phone – because of the information he had given to someone who called him on that cell phone.
"The individual sounded like a senior lady," said Bitz. "She indicated a cell phone tower was going to be upgraded, and our cell phone needed to be taken down, and would be brought back up the next morning."
Bitz says his mistake was giving her the last four digits of his Social Security number.
"That gave them what they needed to get into the system and shut down my phone," Bitz said. And he said the next day, phone service did not return as promised.
"Hundreds of calls were made to a foreign country," Bitz said.
Bitz says because he contacted the phone company right away, he wasn’t charged for any of those phone calls. But he says it took him some time to check with his bank and credit card companies, to make sure he wasn’t hacked any further. He says he learned that the individual can stop this kind of fraud.
"We can always hang up," said Bitz. "Don't let the person drag you on or twist your arm -- simply hang up the phone."
