Shredding event part of effort to protect seniors from scams
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Sensitive documents are shredded as part of a program to protect seniors from scams Thursday at Lynbrook Restorative Therapy & Nursing. Credit: Danielle Silverman
One in 10 U.S. seniors were victims of elder fraud in 2021. In New York that accounted for over $7 billion in losses, according to a report cited by organizers of an event aimed at protecting the elderly on Thursday. Only one in every 23 senior scams is reported to authorities.
That is why Lisa Penziner, director of special projects at Lynbrook Restorative Therapy and Nursing and organizer of the event, said she joined forces with Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly and Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder to tackle the issue of seniors targeted for fraud by organizing a paper-shredding event this Saturday at locations across Nassau.
“There’s been a lot of scams going on, especially targeting seniors,” Penziner said at an announcement of the event in Lynbrook. “It’s more than just shredding, it’s also about keeping your information safe.”
The event will take place simultaneously from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Glen Cove Center, 6 Medical Plaza, Glen Cove, Excel at Woodbury, 8533 Jericho Tpke. in Woodbury, and Lynbrook Restorative Therapy and Nursing, 243 Atlantic Ave. in Lynbrook. Information about scams and how to protect against them will also be given out.
Donnelly said the county’s seniors are an important group and they are being scammed by people who are getting their information in multiple ways.
“Shredding is important. Older documents should be shredded not put in a recycling bin, not put in the garbage. We know that criminals like to go fishing through people’s garbage to get information,” she said.
Steve Morgan, founder of Cybersecurity Ventures and editor-in-chief at Northport-based Cybercrime Magazine, said other ways seniors can fall victim to scams include being tricked into purchasing unnecessary products or services, being coerced into providing personally identifying information or financial information to open new accounts, family members taking money from victims’ accounts or opening credit cards in their names; and tech support fraud, phone calls from people claiming to be tech support from marquee name software and cable companies and claiming to offer assistance because they identified a problem.
“Knowledge is power in the war against cybercrime,” Morgan said in an email. “My biggest recommendations to seniors would be to quickly educate themselves on the latest scams, and how to defeat them. There are excellent resources available.”
Ryder said that over the last two years, scamming has been up. He said last year his department responded to reports of 165 seniors and 358 other people in Nassau County being targeted.
“I got a district attorney that’s gonna drop the hammer every time you’re gonna take advantage and try to pull one over on our seniors,” Ryder said. “We’ll go above and beyond to make sure that we get them and we actually enjoy it now.”
There also will be a shredding event in Sayville on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Community Ambulance Company parking lot at 420 Lakeland Ave.
With Danielle Silverman
Correction: An earlier version of this story said one in 10 New York seniors had been scammed, it is one in 10 American seniors.
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