Hello Everyone,

We are already moving into February so the amount of sunlight is increasing every day. This is good. I do have one topic I want to mention to you. The Chief and I have had a few conversations about it and we need to address this directly.

While this has been a problem for some time now we are forced to deal with a significant increase in financial scams which some of our residents have received. In the great majority of cases if you lose money in one of these you will not get it back. It is gone. Here are a few suggestions to help –

1. Use caution and PAUSE if you are pressured to pay for something  or provide personal or financial information.
2. If you don’t recognize an email, text or social media hover the cursor of the sender’s information. If this is a scam the address may be off by a letter so “Verizon” is now “Verizom”.
3. It only takes a few minutes to research the sender. Look up the website or ask for proof of identity.

All financial institutions have a security center and you should contact them to verify what you are being told by the prospective scammer. Become familiar with how your bank handles alerts and how to freeze your account. Sometimes a few minutes can make the difference. Never give access to your computer or you may give up a lot of your personal information. Below you will find a few links which are worth checking out.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/security-center/avoid-bank-scams/

https://oceanfirst.com/blog/protect-yourself-from-the-latest-imposter-scams#:~:text=At%20OceanFirst%2C%20we%20want%20to,take%20steps%20to%20protect%20yourself!

https://www.td.com/us/en/personal-banking/security-center/scam-phishing

That’s it for now. Always feel free to contact me with any concerns or questions.

Best,

Mayor White

c-732-606-6988