Civic Coffee Recap: Fraud Prevention

On Thursday, July 17, 2025, Age Friendly Seattle partnered with the Seattle Public Library and GenPride to host its monthly Civic Coffee event with a focus on fraud prevention. Cynthia Henton, a volunteer AARP Fraud Watch specialist and a retired elementary and middle school math teacher, led the conversation.

Cynthia began by sharing that people over 50 control 70% of the nation’s wealth. Thus, some scammers target older adults. Though older adults get scammed less often than younger adults, it’s often for more money. To be part of the solution, we must understand the problem.

How do scammers scam?

One common scam in Washington state is an imposter scam, in which scammers pretend to be a trusted source. If your trusted source is saying something that makes you feel particularly excited or afraid, it may be a scammer.

Example: “Hi, this is the IRS, and you owe us $50,000.” Who knows? Maybe you do owe the IRS money. But to ensure that you’re speaking with the real IRS, hang up. Look up the number for the IRS and call that number to verify. 

Scammers can also steal your payment information from fake companies you buy from, or bogus job offers with fees to submit an application.

Solution: Pay with your credit card, since it is more secure and encrypted. If you have any unexpected or unexplained transactions on your balance, call your credit card company.

A major way con artists succeed is by getting their victim “under the ether.” This means they get you excited and hyped up to lower your sensibility.

Example: “If you do not pay this bill today, your lights will be shut off tomorrow.” It is scary to imagine losing electricity tomorrow, so it is reasonable to want to urgently pay the bill. However, before you do so, hang up and call your trusted energy company to verify.

Click on the image above to watch a video recording of the Civic Coffee on Fraud Prevention (YouTube, 1:04:28).

How can we protect ourselves from fraud?

The 3 Rs of fraud prevention can keep you safer from scams and fraud:

1. Recognize. Know the common signs of a scam. Is there a delay when you pick up the phone? It may be a scam call. Are there QR codes on unknown boxes that get delivered to you? This is likely a scam. Vague text messages from unknown numbers? Smells like a scam.

2. Resist. Once you recognize a potential scam, resist it. Hang up that suspicious phone call, don’t scan that random QR code, and report the spam text messages. Even solicitors at your door you can just say no to. You do not have to tell strangers your business.

3. Report. Depending on the scam, you may want to report it to Social Security, your bank, your phone company, or other organizations that are being impersonated.

4. Bonus R: Relax. Scammers often make their victims feel afraid and like they need to act urgently. Breathe and talk about it with a friend if you need to. The AARP Fraud Watch Network is also a great resource.

Pat Johnson, a volunteer with AARP, also recommends freezing your credit. If you freeze your credit, no one can open a credit card or take a loan in your name without your approval. If you need to open a credit card or take a loan, you can call your credit card agency to unfreeze it for a desired period of time, and it will automatically refreeze. While this is a multi-step process to set up, it can be useful for crime prevention and peace of mind. Similarly, you can set up a notification on your debit and credit cards for every purchase over a certain dollar amount, helping you monitor large transactions in case your account information is stolen.

Linda’s story

It was 2023 when Linda received a computer notification that said she was being hacked. Her computer was bombarded with messages to call a phone number. She is an experienced scientist with decades of experience teaching at the college level. Despite this level of education and expertise, she puts it simply: “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

She called that phone number and over the course of four and a half months, was scammed out of her entire retirement savings of $400,000.

Her scammer was impersonating the chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission. He gave her instructions to not tell anybody, or they would arrest her for violating the Federal Privacy Act. While this act only applies to federal officials, she was too scared and “under the ether” to see this at the time. When withdrawing large sums of money, bank tellers would confront her to make sure she was doing okay. She lied. She even lied to her family and friends. When confronted by her loved ones who could see her fear and stress, she kept the scam a secret because she thought that she had to.

The scammer accused her of crimes that she did not commit, such as money laundering. Despite being false, the scammer successfully created a situation based in fear, urgency, and secrecy to keep her from acting rationally, all to take her money.

She did not realize what had happened until it was all over.

“This is all real. This is not imaginary,” Linda shares.

Linda compels people not to answer suspicious calls or messages. Is an unknown source making you afraid or excited? Simply do not engage. You do not have to live in fear to protect yourself—just be mindful of the above tips. When in doubt, talk it out.

Age Friendly Seattle is grateful for AARP’s Fraud Watch volunteers’ insights on fraud prevention and for GenPride’s partnership in hosting this Civic Coffee event. Watch the full online recording here and find out about the upcoming Civic Coffee here.

Contributor Sonali Agarwal is an intern with Age Friendly Seattle. She is studying Law, Societies, & Justice and Environmental Studies at the University of Washington. To read more about Civic Coffee and other programs, visit Age Friendly Seattle.