January 30, 2022
Students from the class of 2023 in the Legal and Protective Services Career Program at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School are bringing important public safety presentations to several local area senior citizen centers. The presentations are focused on how to prevent scams and fraudulent practices that target the elderly and become more prevalent during the holiday season.
These presentations will help seniors learn how to identify and respond to scammers. The students aim to prevent the elderly community members from falling victim to illegal practices that could drain their savings, endanger, or frighten them.
The students enrolled in the Legal and Protective Services Program independently researched the information in their presentations, including interviewing local law enforcement officers. Topics include Phishing & Identity Theft, IRS, romantic/companionship, sweepstakes, charity, funeral, and grandparent scams.
According to the local law enforcement agencies, scams like these are prevalent, and residents of the immediate communities have been scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars. Through research, the students recognized that scammers rely on strong emotions to catch their victims off guard. They will emotionally manipulate their victims through fear, intimidation, excitement, exhaustion, sympathy, guilt, grief, embarrassment, and love.
This manipulation keeps intelligent, rational people from making sound financial…
