By Dan Walton
To counteract the thieves who continue to target the vulnerabilities of seniors, a safety seminar was held at the Oliver Legion last Thursday afternoon.
It was hosted by Cpl. Christina Tarasoff of the Oliver RCMP and Pat Vermiere, constituency assistant for MLA Linda Larson. The small group of local seniors who attended were brought up to speed on the latest tricks and habits of scammers.
Currently, the most common scam comes from people pretending to represent the Canadian Revenue Agency, who make bogus threats about unpaid taxes. The method used to be more common over the phone, but Vermiere said the trick has become more prevalent via email.
“The email will say the sheriff is coming. Don’t even open it, click delete,” she warns. “The CRA does not throw people in jail unless they owe millions – and they snail mail everything.”
Since the advent of the Internet and robo-calling, Vermiere says seniors are being targeted now more than ever.
She tells seniors to never give money to anybody who hasn’t done work for them, no matter how much they try to intimidate.
“Some people do get scared easily – that’s why I started doing all this.”
Anybody who’s skeptical about the legitimacy of somebody demanding money can contact Vermiere at Larson’s constituency office at 250-498-5122, or the Oliver RCMP at 250-498-3422.
