Ward Off Approaching Danger
A quick warning
The Police Department in my little city made national news yesterday, in a CNN report about scams that operate using crypto currency ATM’s.
While this little essay isn’t about Freemasonry, I’m hopeful that it will be helpful to Masons, given that the demographics of Masonry seem to be the preferred targets of those operating these scams.
People get a phone call from someone claiming to be from their bank, or a government agency, or law enforcement, and they are fed an extremely compelling story. Something about how they or their accounts have been compromised, and the only way they can protect themselves is to go to the bank, withdraw cash, and feed it into a Bitcoin ATM.
This actually happened to a young lady I know within the past year or so. A young woman who one would not see as vulnerable to a scam like this. She didn’t lose too much, as she didn’t have very much, but I think it just goes to show how very convincing these people on the phone can be.
So, you go to the bank, take out a bunch of cash, feed that cash into one of these ATM machines, and your money is gone forever.
The CNN story includes a police bodycam video of a lady so convinced that she needed to stuff her cash into the machine that she continued trying to do so even while the police were there assuring her that it was a scam.
The story also recounts how earlier this year a victim in my little city was scammed out of $25,000.
Brothers, we owe it to ourselves to not fall victim to scams like this. No matter how convincing the person on the phone might be.
If you are talking with someone on the phone, and they tell you that you need to take cash from your bank account, and deposit it in a machine somewhere, don’t do it. That’s a scam.
If you receive an email from a Lodge Brother (as I did just yesterday) or from a Grand Lodge Officer (that I receive quite frequently) asking you to buy gift cards to help them through a temporary emergency, don’t do it. That’s a scam.
And if you are in doubt, if you really do think it sounds perfectly legitimate, just hang up the phone, and call a Lodge Brother to discuss it before you do anything else at all. We are charged to help each other ward off all approaching danger, and by calling a Brother to talk about it, the two of you, together, can consider if it really is legitimate or not. This is a simple protection, as our Brother might see something that we aren’t seeing due to the sense of urgency these phone scammers manage to make us feel.
The CNN story is at the link below, I urge you to read it so that we can all protect ourselves:
Here’s a real world example of a scam that was attempted on my wife and I just a few months ago…
She and I had just arrived at the cemetery for MW Al Jorgensen’s graveside service. We hadn’t yet gotten out of the car when her cell phone rang.
The caller was a ‘Deputy’ from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He said that their records indicated that she had been Summoned for Jury Duty, and hadn’t shown up, a crime, and that she needed to take care of it for face legal consequences.
The phone was on speaker, as we were in a car, and the guy certainly sounded legitimate to me.
And it was true, she’d just been Summoned for Jury Duty the month prior, and it was true that she didn’t go. She had called the automated system once a week as instructed in the notice, and her number had never been asked to show up. But, here he was, a Lewis County ‘Deputy,’ she’d been Summoned by Lewis County Superior Court, and she had indeed never shown up.
But, we were in a hurry. And it was an extremely sad occasion.
She didn’t talk to the guy. Rather, she just hung up on him.
When we got home, she called the Sheriff’s Office.
The real Deputy she talked with assured her that it was indeed a scam. Apparently the scammers had gotten her Juror records which they were then able to use to make their story sound credible.
We can’t fall for this stuff.
We need to just hang up.
If in doubt, we need to call a Brother to talk it out.
One of our great Brothers does this sort of security work professionally. He is in the process of writing an article about how to protect our checks, debit cards, bank accounts, cell phones, and all the rest. That will be published here on Emeth soon.
In the meantime, let us all be extremely sceptical about claims made by unknown callers on the phone.
MW, a grim and concerning topic. Maybe to lighten the air I'll share a funny moment from a few years ago. I received a robo call telling me that my taxes were delinquent and that I would face serious criminal penalties if I didn't remedy the situation immediately. Then I was instructed to ... and I swear I'm not making this up ... "Press 1 to speak to one of our specialists, Press 2 if you would like to face serious criminal penalties." You know me, of course I pressed 2 while was laughing out loud.
As much fun as that moment was the scams are very serious business and the crooks have gotten a lot smarter since my robo-call episode. Always be on your toes!
I investigated many of these scams, usually always after the fact. I can’t speak to bank/atm scams other if you receive a call, before you do anything, call your bank back after ending the call. As far as receiving a call from a deputy or police officer telling you there is a warrant for your arrest. There isn’t, we never call. If you have a warrant, law enforcement will show up at your door. If they tell you you’ve failed to appear for jury duty, call which ever court you’re supposed to have missed to verify. Here’s the big one, never give your personal information out, either over the phone or through email, ever. No legitimate institution will ask for your information over the phone or through email and they will never ask you to pay with an Apple Card or any other card. My name has been used several times by scammers, as recently as 6 months ago. Please be mindful of your older relatives who are constantly barraged with scams.