This afternoon Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz held a Senior Town Hall Meeting at the Van Cortlandt Senior Center on Sedgwick Avenue. The main focus of these senior town hall meetings is to alert senior who are targets of scammers to the current and newest scams that are aimed towards senior citizens. Assemblyman Dinowitz mentioned some of the phone scams where the caller says a relative is in need of money or that the senior owes Con Edison back payment or their lights will be turned off. The senior is then directed to go to a drug store to purchase a Green Dot Money Card and give the code numbers to the scammer in a call back. Also mentioned was a new scam at this time of the year when taxes are done. The senior receives a call from someone who says they are from the IRS who tells the senior that they owe more taxes, and again to purchase a Green Dot Money Card and call back with the code numbers.
Assemblyman Dinowitz said that Con Edison, The IRS, and any reputable company will not call you on the phone directing you to purchase a Green Dot Money Card, and call back with the code number from the back of the card. These are scams he said and once you give the code number the Green Dot Money Card becomes useless and worth nothing. He added that Con Edison, the IRS, and any other reputable company will not call you asking you to purchase a Green Dot Money Card, and the code from the back of the card.
Assemblyman Dinowitz also warned the seniors to be careful on their computers as to phony e-mails that may do the same thing, or try top get their personal information for a scam to steal their hard earned money. Hse suggested if you do not know who the e-mail is from, or it looks suspicious that you should not open the e-mail and delete it from your computer. Afterwards Assemblyman Dinowitz took questions from the audience on this and other topics.
The next Senior Town Hall Meeting from Assemblyman Dinowitz will take place on Friday February 12th at the Riverdale YM_YWHA located at 5625 Arlington Avenue (off West 256th Street), and begin at 11 AM.
