Boomer U: Avoid Being Scammed

Con artists aren’t just targeting the stereotypical old lady at home. It happened just last week to the wife of one of the nation’s experts on online safety – a man who literally locks his laptop to the hotel toilet when he travels so it and his information isn’t stolen and sold. “My laptop is chained in my (car) trunk right now,” Christopher Burgess said Tuesday after speaking at the AARP and Washington Attorney General’s “scam jam” conference in the Spokane Valley. Burgess, retired from the CIA, is the co-founder of the startup online security company Revendra in Woodinville, Washington. Needing to send last-minute flowers, Burgess’ wife found a so-called florist company online that would deliver on Sundays. The flowers were never received and after a quick Google search, it was obvious the company was fake and that she had been scammed. Luckily, the order was put on a credit card so after reporting the fraud, the Burgesses got their money back from the credit card company who then went after the scammer/ Erica Curless , SR Boomer U. More here . (SR photo by Tyler Tjomsland: Cheryl Reed Weber, a community outreach director with AARP, hands out sign-up sheets for the Fraud Watch Network)

Question: Have you ever been the target of a scam?