• Carson Now on Facebook
  • Follow Carson Now on Twitter
  • Follow Carson Now by RSS
  • Follow Carson Now by Email

Lyon County Sheriff’s Message of the Week: Avoiding Scams

Identify theft, and phone scams have been a nuisance in the region lately. Multiple agencies have reached out to their respective communities to provide information in order to keep them safe from scammers whose only intention is to steal your money.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office is providing the following information in order to educate our community on the possible phone scams they may encounter.

According to the FBI’s latest Internet Crime Report, Americans over the age of 60 lost $1.7 billion to fraud last year. That’s the highest loss amount reported out of any age group. Lyon County is no exception to this rule, our senior community is constantly targeted by scammers and fraudsters.

Scammers are impersonating government officials, several state they are with law enforcement and are collecting fines. Other scammers are claiming to offer financial assistance. These scammers are constantly targeting our senior community.

What are the most common reasons these scammers target seniors?

-They’re more trusting of others — especially people who claim to be looking out for them.
-They often have considerable savings or valuable possessions. This makes them lucrative targets for scammers.
-They’re often not tech-savvy and easier to scam online, over the phone, or on social media.
-They may have cognitive or physical impairments preventing them from exercising their best judgment.
-They might feel like they can’t report the scam out of fear of losing their independence or being seen as incompetent.

Here are examples of scams that we are seeing in Lyon County and our senior population needs to be aware of.

The grandparent scam:

Imposters pretending to be the police call and say that their grandchild has been in an accident or is involved in a crime. Scammers will then ask their targets to take out large sums of money or make a wire transfer to “save” their grandchild. The scammer will even use the real name of the victim's grandchild along with other identifying information that they find online to make the scam more believable. In other cases, the fraudster will even pretend to be the grandchild and claim to be in trouble.

Government imposter scams:

In this senior scam, fraudsters contact older people claiming to be representatives from a well-known government agency. This could include Medicare, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), or law enforcement.
Fraudsters may use caller ID spoofing to make the call seem genuine. And once you’re on the line, they may parrot your Social Security number (SSN) to further legitimize the call.

Elder financial abuse:

Elder financial abuse happens when someone the victim knows and trusts — like a family member, close friend, or caregiver — tries to gain access to the senior’s savings, credit, or assets. They could trick their victim into signing over access or power of attorney. Or, they might even threaten to withhold care if they don’t receive access.

Tech support scams:

In this type of fraud, the scammer masquerades as a tech support representative from a company you trust like Apple or Microsoft. They’ll claim that your computer or device is at risk of being infected by viruses and then trick you into granting them remote access or paying for software that you don’t need. Sometimes, the goal is to trick the victim into downloading what they think is helpful software. But when they do, it’s actually malware that opens up the potential for cyber-attacks that target the victim’s banking information. This scam often happens through phone calls, but it’s also common to see pop-up ads on websites targeting seniors.

Sweepstakes and elder lottery scams:

Fraudsters reach out to an elderly victim and claim that they’ve won a contest, lottery, or sweepstakes that they never entered. But to receive winnings, they’ll need to pay upfront fees and taxes and supply their banking information for the transfer. Scammers will often string along their victims for months or years, claiming that they need additional payment. But any money that’s sent goes straight to the scammer.

What to do:

Most scams rely on older victims panicking, becoming flustered, or making hasty decisions. As an aid to yourself or senior relatives, it helps to post notes next to phones, computers, and doors with the following tips (or some variation of them):

STOP: Take a moment and think about the situation. Does anything feel suspicious?

LEAVE: Hang up, close the door, or close the email. If someone is pressing you to act now, they could be a con artist.

ASK: Call a family member for advice, search online for more details, and find out if the organizations you're speaking to are real. You can also ask a visitor for identification.

WAIT: Take the time to absorb what you’ve learned and make a plan of action. Don’t rush any decisions.

ACT: Only visit legitimate websites and call verified, safe phone numbers. You can use independent review websites and email address lookup services to check someone's identity.

Nearly all scam calls and fraudsters originate outside of the United States, making tracking them and prosecuting them, near impossible.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office along with the District Attorney’s Office, are willing to present information regarding preventing senior fraud. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office along with the District Attorney have presented fraud prevention classes at the Dayton Senior Center, Yerington Senior Center, Silver Springs Senior Center and the Fernley Senior Center as well as several church groups who requested the class. We are always looking to present this information and protect the seniors of this community from the lowest element of society that targets them and their hard earned money. If your group would like a presentation please reach out via messenger or email.

Respectfully,
Sheriff Brad Pope

Top Stories

... or see all stories

Carson City Symphony Association’s “Strings in the Summer 2024 - Rhythm & Strings” is a weekly program for string-instrument players of all ages and levels. It meets on Thursdays, from June 20 to August 1 (except July 4), from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the Tahoe Room at the Carson City Senior Center, 911 Beverly Drive.

Gusty winds and low humidity Sunday has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Red Flag Warning for Carson City and surrounding counties.

The Class of 2024 was celebrated two weeks ago with a free all-night party hosted by Carson High Safe Grad. This event is only made possible because of the generosity of volunteered time and donated resources made available by the following individuals and organizations (businesses marked by an asterisk).

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of June 17-23, 2024. Closures and lane restrictions are expected at the following locations due to road and utility work:

On June 6, 2020, Carson City Assistant Sheriff Daniel Gonzales graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA. In a release provided by the FBI, 201 law enforcement officers graduated from the FBI National Academy.

Muscle Powered

Join Muscle Powered for an evening hike of Kings Canyon Waterfall Trail in Carson City at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 19.

Carson City Fire Department and sheriff's deputies were called early Saturday evening to a vehicle that reportedly crashed into the garage of a residence in the 3700 block of Woodside Drive.

After nine months of learning just about every aspect of what makes Carson City tick, 23 members of the Carson City Leadership Class of 2024 graduated on Thursday, June 13.

The Jazz & Beyond festival committee announces that the winner of the 2024 poster and program cover art contest is Carol Foldvary-Anderson. Her design, "More Than Just Jazz!" was selected from six entries to highlight the 21st annual Carson City music festival.

Join the Carson City Library for an author event that hits close to home with the release of Virginia City V. Bonanza: A Tale of Merging Histories, published by Rowman & Littlefield. Written by Monette Bebow-Reinhard, the discussion takes place Saturday, June 22, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. at the Carson City Library, located at 900 N. Roop St., Carson City.

Attention film lovers and sci-fi film enthusiasts: Prepare to blast off into a world of imagination and creativity with Silver State Storyteller's Moon Rocks Sci-Fi Short Film Competition happening today at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City.

Carson City eateries will take to the streets at the center of the capital city today, Saturday, June 15 for the 30th Taste of Downtown, a long tradition to benefit the city's shelter for domestic violence victims.

The annual Stewart Father's Day Powwow at the former Stewart Indian Boarding School Campus in Carson City is underway, continuing through Sunday.

Lenny aka Tommy Two-Tone is a handsome long-haired orange kitty with a sweet face and silky soft fur. He likes people and once comfortable with you, he will purr with delight while you pet him.

After several years of set backs due to the economy, the Sierra Flats Affordable Housing project is finally opening with a ribbon cutting July 9, providing 80 new rent controlled units to the capital city.

There are two portions of the project, a building for seniors and a building for family and workforce housing, each containing 40 units.

UNR Extension Master Gardener Community Garden Talks

Join UNR Extension Master Gardeners of Carson City for a night in the garden.

Today is the last day of school, which brings on High School graduation across Lyon County. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office congratulates all of those that are graduating today, and wishes them the best as they enter the workforce, go off to college, join the military or any other adventure they choose to embark on.

The Carson City School District reminds the community that all school offices within the district, with the exception of Carson High School, will be closed from June 17 to August 5. The Carson High School office will be open to help you from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Douglas County is pleased to announce important updates to parking regulations and options for visitors and residents enjoying Zephyr Cove Beach at Lake Tahoe this summer.

For the first time, "No Parking" signs will line both sides of Highway 50 in each direction from the new stoplight installed by the Nevada Department of Transportation at Warrior Way.

Two people have been found dead after the plane they were in crashed in Alpine County, south of Lake Tahoe. On June 13 at approximately 1 a.m., deputies from the Alpine County Sheriff's Office were notified of an overdue aircraft that had left Lodi, Calif. on Wednesday afternoon.

A sixteen-year-old Carson City resident is in custody following a gas station robbery Thursday night.

According to Sheriff Ken Furlong, the robbery occurred at an ExtraMile convenience store and involved a knife.

Here are the votes as of Tuesday, June 13 at 4:40 p.m.

The votes will not be finalized until all mail ballots have been counted. So far, the majority of ballots (5,720) were cast by mail, followed up by early voting (2,171) with the least amount of votes (1,842) cast on Election Day.

We will continue to update results as they come in.

Carson City author Michael K. Falciani, left, receives the ACES High Award from

We have a winner! Dragon Crown Books is pleased to announce that Carson City author Michael K. Falciani is the winner of the inaugural ACES High Award for outstanding contribution to The ACES Anthology 2023.

The Douglas County School Board selected Angelo “Frankie” Alvarado, a Ukiah, Calif. district administrator, as their next superintendent.

This is the third selection for a superintendent, the first of which was John Ramirez Jr., also of California, who had a history of DUI, sexual harassment, hit and run, mismanagement of district funds, and more.

A concert by The Sierra Sweethearts, a Chautauqua of Laura D. Fair, and local author Gregory Crouch are featured as part of the Dangberg Summer Festival in June.

Carson City Friday Family Fun Days is kicking off the 2024 summer season at Mills Park Friday, June 21.

Each Friday, event goers can find either live music or a community movie in the park along with a selection of food trucks. Kids actives include giant Jenga, giant 4-across, giant velcro kick darts, cornhole, bean bag skee ball, chicken fingers, and a selfie spot.

Our Pet of the Week is Tony.Tony is a ten-year-old taking on the world as a blind pup. This senior sweetheart is a great leash walker as he bravely explores new places using his other senses. He’s become quite the fan favorite in Reno and Carson City. This survivor hasn’t let his hurdles overwhelm his sweet personality. His tail is always wagging!

Join in for a day of fun, competition, and great food as Max Casino in Carson City hosts its 2nd annual hot dog eating contest.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit would like you all to join us in celebrating the life and experiences of K9 Ivo, who passed just a few days ago.

A pool-funded study led by the Nevada Department of Transportation recently received a Federal Highway Administration Environmental Excellence Award.