Money Matters
Money Matters
Defending Against Scams: Insights and Strategies for 2025
Uncover the evolving world of financial scams in 2025 with insights from financial crimes expert Sergeant Brian Lashua. As we navigate the intricate web of scams, you’ll learn how AI plays a pivotal role in these fraudulent activities and why the infamous gift card scam remains a favorite among fraudsters. Discover which groups are most at risk and why no legitimate business ever demands gift cards as payment. With the holiday season and natural disasters often triggering spikes in certain scams, vigilance and quick action become your best defenses.
Our conversation takes a heartfelt turn as we focus on protecting our senior citizens from financial fraud. Discover practical ways families can shield their elderly loved ones from scams like romance fraud. Explore the dynamic partnerships between law enforcement and financial institutions that work tirelessly to combat these crimes and recover lost funds. We shed light on the vulnerabilities inherent in traditional banking practices, such as check writing, and advocate for secure online transactions to thwart mail theft and fraud.
When financial crime strikes, knowing what to do can make all the difference. We guide you through the critical steps for reporting incidents and discuss the emotional complexities that emerge when family members are involved. From safeguarding personal information to ensuring caregivers are trustworthy, we cover all bases. Moreover, we emphasize building a robust financial foundation with simple security practices like strong passwords and regular account monitoring. Equip yourself with the knowledge to protect your financial future and stay one step ahead of scammers.
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Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want – brought to you by Neighbors Federal Credit Union.
The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice.
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want. Now here is your host, ms Kim.
Speaker 2:Chapman, welcome to another edition of Money Matters. Yay, it is 2025. How many of you are glad to see the door close on 2024? No matter what happened in 2024, it's in the past, and now we want to focus on 2025 and, specifically, how to financially thrive in 2025. Now that can be a bit challenging because, with AI, scammers are everywhere and we want to be able to keep your money safe.
Speaker 2:So today we're going to focus on financial crimes and with me I have an expert, a specialist here, sergeant Brian Lashua. Lashua. Right, correct, all right, and he's going to help us. You know, look at how can we better protect ourselves and protect our money. I tell you, there are scams everywhere. I had him laughing. The other day Somebody sent me a $10 e-card for Chick-fil-A. I saw it and it took me less than a second to immediately delete it because I'm just so afraid of being scammed. And later that day I actually found out it was a legitimate e-gift card. So hopefully he can help us find out what are the clues to look for, what's real, what's not real and how can we keep our money safe. So let's start with how do we define financial crimes?
Speaker 3:Financial crimes for the everyday person. Is somebody else wanting your money?
Speaker 2:Well, that could be me and taking steps to illegally obtain it. All right, so that's what we draw the line.
Speaker 3:Right. So financial crimes what we're seeing you mentioned AI, which is starting to come into play, but a lot of the financial crimes that we deal with here locally in Baton Rouge is the same scams that these criminals have been running for years. They're just constantly evolving and progressing. As technology changes, the scams change a little bit, but at its base, it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:So what type of trends maybe, specifically, that you see in the Baton Rouge area?
Speaker 3:Lately. A lot of it has been to do with two things One, the gift card scam. With two things. One, the gift card scam. People will receive a call or get a pop up ad on their computer saying that their computer has been compromised or that they have a family member in jail in some city, and or they have a warrant for their arrest. And whatever the scam scammers say to get them on the hook, they always want to be paid by gift cards or iTunes cards or Amazon gift cards and they convince the victim to go to all these different stores and purchase $500 gift cards and they'll get six, eight, 10 of them and scratch off the numbers on the back and either text them a photo of the card or give them the PIN number, and as soon as you do that, that money is gone. What people have to understand is no legitimate business gets paid by gift card. That is your number one red flag. Nobody takes gift cards as payment, no legitimate business.
Speaker 3:Tactics that they use generally revolve around speed or fear. They're going to try to make you afraid, either for your safety If you don't do this, a warrant will be issued for your arrest within the hour or the speed. Hey, you need to stay on the line while this is going on. You know, go ahead and go. Do this now If you don't Pressure Right.
Speaker 2:So what age group, or is there a particular person or type of person that's targeted more so than others?
Speaker 3:I would say nobody. No one group is targeted more than the others, because a lot of these scammers they don't know they're generally phishing scams and it just with technology, you know things like that, still pay their bills by checks, which is a whole nother conversation we need to have, but generally your elderly people are the ones that fall victim to it more often.
Speaker 2:Generally your elderly people are the ones that fall victim to it more often. And I'd probably like to add busy people, because I think that sometimes, when we talk about scams, we often have Carmen Million with the BBB come in and talk about it.
Speaker 2:We're such a busy generation. We're multitasking, we're doing five things at one time and in a calm environment oh of course you can't scam me, right. And in a calm environment, oh of course you can't scam me, right. But when I'm busy and I've got a headache and I've got a deadline and the kids are screaming and the train is making me late, all it takes is just that one little second, that little window of time, right? And so, speaking of time, you know, of course we just got over the holidays, so we like to think that crime does ramp up, at least in my opinion, around that time of the year In your world, in terms of you see this all the time. Is there any particular time of the year that you see more crime, especially financial crime, than other.
Speaker 3:Financial crimes generally are steady year round. Now we do see an uptick in specific types of financial crimes after certain events. During the holidays we see more credit card, debit card fraud because a lot of people are spending more money online. They're going to websites that may not be secure things of that nature. After a hurricane we see a large uptick in residential contractor fraud Contractors coming in from out of state. They're not licensed. They do shoddy work. They get paid up front. They may work one or two days and then you never see them again. So it depends on what's going on at that time frame. But financial crimes are generally constant throughout the year. It just changes depending on what's happening.
Speaker 2:So if somebody feels that they've been a victim of a financial crime, what do you think is the first step? What should they do immediately once that light bulb goes off and they're like oh my God, I think I've just been scammed or somebody's stolen my money?
Speaker 3:Call your bank, freeze your account. Okay, if someone does. Let's say, your credit card or debit card is compromised on a skimmer at a gas station, at a grocery store. We've been seeing those pop up here lately and the way the skimmers generally work, they have Bluetooth skimmers to where they can immediately download your information. A lot of the ones we're seeing lately they're on a particular terminal in a grocery store, at a gas station and they're only there for one or two days and then the criminals come, pull them off and then they can download the information manually. Well, once you see a charge pop up on your card for $30 at Domino's Pizza in Florida, call your bank, freeze your account, because at that point it's only $30. But you have the information to know that your account is now compromised, so cut it off before it gets bad.
Speaker 2:Wow, so what type of resources are available for people that have become victims of crime?
Speaker 3:Well again, the Better Business Bureau you mentioned them earlier is a great resource. But call your local police department, your local sheriff's office, whatever jurisdiction you happen to live in, and report it. I have very good detectives that work for me, uh, and we can begin investigating it. Uh, a lot of times we can connect your crime to someone else's crime. Uh, especially nowadays, everything leaves a paper trail. Yes, so if your account is compromised, you lost X amount of money. We can find out where that money went, and a lot of times your money went to a bank account, to a 75-year-old lady in Des Moines, iowa, and we call her, and she's actually a victim as well. Her account has been compromised. They're just using that to funnel your money into her account and then from her account to someone else's account, and it may go through six or seven accounts before it finally lands overseas somewhere.
Speaker 2:Generally, so we mentioned earlier, of course, that sometimes it is the senior citizens that are a little bit more vulnerable. So what can family members do to protect their loved ones, especially the older ones, from becoming a victim of a financial crime?
Speaker 3:Stay in touch with them. You know a lot of these elderly victims don't have active family members in their life. I mean they may have a daughter or a granddaughter that comes checks on them once a week. You know things like that. But stay in contact with them, talk to them so they feel comfortable letting you know what's going on with their life, especially like the romance scams that we see a lot of with our elderly victims. They may feel embarrassed and not want to talk to you about that by the time. You know, keep active on their accounts. You know, have access to their accounts just so you can keep track of everything. Uh, but by the time a lot of these family members realize what's going on I mean, a hundred thousand dollars may be missing and they're just too embarrassed to say anything. Or they may still believe that this person they've been communicating with online truly is the love of their life and their golden years.
Speaker 2:Perhaps right.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So how does law enforcement work with financial institutions to help detect financial crime? And then I've always wanted to know how often do these consumers ever get that money back?
Speaker 3:Do these consumers ever get that money back? So, as far as working with financial institutions, we have monthly or every other month meetings with a lot of the financial institutions locally through BRASBA, Talk about trends that are going on and financial institutions really work with us. Well, you know we need information. We go through the courts, we get our you know the appropriate court orders or subpoenas, give it to the financial institutions and they give us, you know, whatever information we think we may need. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:What was the second part of the question? I guess we'll cut it right there.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's okay, that's know. Let me go back and see what was the first part of the question. Oh, detectives, crimes, and then you know how often is money recovered. Ok, gotcha.
Speaker 3:Now, as far as victims getting their money recovered, we do recover a large amount of the funds. That's good to know. Sometimes it takes a while, especially if we are able to make an arrest on a case. It does have to go through the judicial process, which you know can take some time. Yes, but restitution is something that the judges do order time, but restitution is something that the judges do order. If it's not a large amount of money, a lot of times the financial institution will just reimburse the victim, but at that point the bank is now at a loss, so the reimbursement would be issued to the bank at a later date.
Speaker 2:So outside of okay, we've got the online shopping scams and definitely the financial institutions. What are some other scams that people should really be on the lookout for and what are those types of scams Like we talked about? Some things almost seem like it should be common sense that, oh, maybe I shouldn't be paying a company with a gift card, or perhaps you know why would somebody be saying I have to go to jail if I owe money. So what are those scams that maybe are just so unique and just kind of underhanded that even you know, the highest IQ person could get scammed?
Speaker 3:One of the ones that we have seen in the past few years. The criminals do a more targeted research on their victims. They will find out through social media or just public records, your family members' information, and you mentioned AI earlier. They have called individuals hey, your grandson was in a wreck in New Orleans, Somebody's in the hospital because of it? He was drinking. He needs $50,000 bail and it has to be posted within the next three hours. And so the name that they give is actually their grandson and they know their grandson lives in New Orleans. Well, they can't call their grandson to find out because he's in jail to find out because he's in jail.
Speaker 3:So they go to their bank, they draw out the cash and then the criminals tell them hey, I'm sending a courier to pick up the money and they will send either an Uber or an accomplice. They'll go by the house, they'll pick up $50,000 in a shoebox and leave, and the victim is waiting to hear back from their. He said I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't been in a wreck. Wow. I would like to talk about checks. Okay, that is a problem nationwide With the exterior blue US postal mailboxes.
Speaker 3:You should look at those mailboxes as a shredder. Oh, wow, if you're putting mail in that it may not come out. If you do steal mail, mail your checks go inside, drop it at the box inside. That is just a simple metal box outside and these criminals either have found a key somewhere or just use a crowbar and they're in and out of that box in under a minute and the checks that you mail for $30 for your Cox cable bill is being cashed in Houston for $3,000. Wow. So definitely keep an eye on your checks or pay your bills online through whatever institution. Again, the elderly generation doesn't necessarily feel comfortable with that. They can do it. They just don't feel comfortable. They would rather write out a check, keep a log of it. But those checks have all your information.
Speaker 2:They have your name, your address, your bank account number and once you put it in that blue box you're taking your chances, and it's almost surprising because you don't see check writing as much today as you did 10 or 15 years ago. But I see the criminals have not avoided that. Right, Correct. Wow, that's pretty unique. So you know, of course we talk about those red flags, things that you should look for. What are the things that you find that consumers just you know, I guess just not thinking what are those things that they're doing that just makes them an easy target.
Speaker 3:Shopping online through unsecure websites. Everybody knows, at the top of the website, on the little address bar on the left, there's a lock Right and it's either locked or unlocked. If it's unlocked, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't put your information in there. Shop through either. Shop locally in person. But if you do order online, go through your major companies. You know your Amazons, your Walmarts. Don't click a link on Facebook because you saw a product that you like. I was actually a victim of that.
Speaker 2:Tell us about that.
Speaker 3:About seven, eight years ago I'd ordered a bracelet from my wife that I saw on a Facebook ad. I actually got the bracelet in. Everything seemed legit. It was a good price not ridiculously cheap to where it would make you raise an eyebrow. And then, about 18 months later, I noticed a charge on my account and it was for like $5 that I didn't recognize. So I researched it and this company that I bought that bracelet from had set up an auto draft and I had been paying $5 a month since I bought that bracelet for a year and a half. So I called the bank and we stopped it. I was able to be reimbursed. It wasn't, you know, an exorbitant amount of money $5 a month, something that you wouldn't necessarily notice.
Speaker 2:And that's what they were banking on Right.
Speaker 3:And if I hadn't noticed it? I mean, it took me a year and a half to notice it, but by that time they had a little money, you know, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah, if you multiply that by all the people that you know don't look at their statements, and that's definitely one of my pet peeves. We have to learn to look at our statements and look at what we're paying for, because, like you said, five dollars, one dollar, it adds up over time and so they're making, you know, tons of money on the other end, right?
Speaker 3:Whereas if they'd have been charging me $50 or $500 a month, I would have immediately noticed and they wouldn't have got anything but small amounts goes under the radar.
Speaker 2:Well, definitely law enforcement, and there are always scams with law enforcement. So can you tell us what to look out for if somebody's trying to pose as a law enforcement officer? Or those, like you said, they give you those calls to say, hey, we're going to arrest you if you don't take care of this debt? So what are some things that we should know law enforcement would never do?
Speaker 3:Well, several things. One with technology, nowadays phone numbers can be spoofed. Yes, you will get a. You could get a phone call on your cell phone and it will say Baton Rouge City Police, 389-2000, which is our main number. It looks legitimate and people get a call. This is so-and-so with the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Speaker 3:These are actual cases I've seen and they give the name of an actual Baton Rouge police officer that the criminals found in a newspaper or something like that. Generally, by the time it goes through, that officer has already retired. But they will call and say hey, you have a warrant or you will have a warrant out for your arrest for an unpaid traffic ticket or whatever. Baton Rouge police or any law enforcement agency will never call you and tell you if you don't pay whatever money, you're going to have a warrant out for your arrest. That's not something that happens If you have unpaid parking tickets. So if you have unpaid parking tickets, that's going to come from the court system and you will get a letter in the mail and then you can go on the court system website and look up and see what's going on. No police officers ever going to call you and ask you for money at no point in time, under any circumstance. So as soon as you hear that, just hang up the phone.
Speaker 2:And I think the people that have tickets out there, as soon as they hear it, they freeze and they react accordingly Correct.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's just not something that we do. All right, so are there other financial crimes that our consumers should be aware of? And then even further. We're talking about consumers on an individual, but it's because of individuals. We had three or four cases and it goes back to speed and fear, where an employee would get a call hey, this is, or get a text this is your boss. I need you to go buy these gift cards to pay off this vendor. They do it, money's gone. We've already talked about that. We've also had cases where they would call the cashier or whoever happens to answer the phone hey, this is the FBI. Your boss is under surveillance for money laundering. He's probably going to be going to jail for a very long time If you don't want to go with him.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:I need you to prove that you're not involved in this. I need you to take all the money out of the register, I need you to take all the money out of the safe and I need you to go to a Bitcoin machine and deposit that money and they give them the Bitcoin address to send the money through. Well, cryptocurrency it's still fairly new, but it's been around long enough to where law enforcement can track cryptocurrency to a certain extent. But it's very easy for the criminals to move that money from wallet to wallet to wallet and then it's gone. So again, the FBI is not going to call a business and say give us all your money through Bitcoin. Take time, think about it. That doesn't make sense. Be intentional with your actions, with your thoughts. When the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, just stop. Take a breath. You're not about to go to jail if you don't do this and just think about it.
Speaker 2:Just plain old. Use that common sense. So you've been in law enforcement for a while. Can you tell us maybe some harrowing stories of financial crimes that you know? Maybe even that hair on your head stand up.
Speaker 3:There are so many. I mean, we've had religious institutions in the city that have been scammed for over a million dollars, wow, wow, by having lackluster security measures on their accounts where multiple people had access to, where their accounts and passwords were written down and left out in the open for anybody to see. We're a church, right, honest people here? Exactly no, I think people just need to know, like I mentioned before, be intentional with what you do with your money. You work hard for it. When you are scammed, you know the Baton Rouge Police Department or whatever jurisdiction you live in, those officers are going to work hard to try and get your money back. Work hard to try and get your money back. But some of these, these scams that the gift cards, the checks there is a money trail, but the money trail can only go so far. We're here for the citizens, but the citizens have to be responsible for their own actions and just make smart decisions, because the scams are everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yes, they most definitely are. So when they do contact law enforcement to say, hey, I think I've become a victim, what type of information should they be prepared to get, and is a police report done every time somebody is calling?
Speaker 3:If people call to report a crime, a police report is always written. They need to have the basic information about what happened to the initial reporting officer. Now, once that officer writes his report, the case will get forwarded to the appropriate detective division for follow-up. In these cases, it will come to my office. It will come to my desk. I'll look over the cases. I'll assign it to one of my detectives. Now, when my detective calls you, they're going to need your account number.
Speaker 3:They're going to need your name, date of birth, address, things like that, and some victims are a little wary of it because they were just a victim and if they don't feel comfortable giving out that information over the phone, my detectives will come out to your house and sit down with you face to face. You know, let them feel more comfortable that way, because we need that information for any subpoenas or court orders that we issues. Hey, you know, five thousand000 was wired from this PayPal account. We need to know where it went. But we have to have that account number in order to get the information.
Speaker 3:So any information, date and times of the transactions, if they have it, where the transactions took place, because the victims they can, you know, pull it up on their app or log into their account. And they can pull it up on their app or log into their account and they can get that information almost immediately, Whereas if we do a court order, subpoena, it may take us two or three weeks to get that information, and speed is the key for us at that point. We're trying to work these cases as quickly as possible because the quicker we work it, the higher probability of getting the funds back. So once we find out the funds went to this account, then we issue another court order to that bank. If those funds are still there, we can reverse the transaction.
Speaker 2:Now, as unfortunate as it is, a lot of times people that are victims of crime, it's their own family members, people that they know on an intimate relationship, and you'll find people oh you know, I want my money back, but then I don't want to turn in my son, I don't want to turn in my brother, I don't want to turn in my uncle. What advice or what recommendations do you make for somebody that finds themselves in that particular situation?
Speaker 3:They have to make a decision situation. They have to make a decision. We are a law enforcement agency. We are not the mafia that goes shake people down Again. We're not going to call you hey, you need to pay this money back or you're going to go to jail. That is not what we do. If you would like us to investigate the case, we will investigate the case and at that point, if you find out that it's your family member that did it, the victim always has the opportunity to say okay, I don't want to press charges. The victim doesn't want to press charges.
Speaker 2:then that's the end of it.
Speaker 3:A lot of cases are coming in, not necessarily with family members, but with caregivers. Family member that has a daytime caregiver come through every day once a week. Whatever. Make sure it's a reputable company. Check the BBB, do any research you can on them because they have access to this family member's house. Five checks on the back of the checkbook can be ripped out and never noticed. But now they have five checks belonging to this individual or they can get their debit card legitimately to go do their grocery shopping for them. Take a picture of the card. Now they have access to their card for any online shopping they want to do. So just make sure you're going through a reputable company and it goes back to keep an eye on their statements. Make sure everything is adding up.
Speaker 2:So here's an interesting question Are there any types of financial crimes that individuals can commit and not really realize? Oh, that's illegal? For example, when I do my classes and we're talking about writing checks and say for example, you wrote me a check, you legitimately wanted me to have it, but you forgot to sign it. You just flew off on vacation. You're going to be gone for two weeks. Can I sign that check for you? Of course I know that I can't, but in my mind I'm thinking, oh, but you know, sergeant Lashua wanted me to have this check. He's not going to be back for three weeks. I need this money. He knows I need it. He can't come back and sign it. I'm just going to go ahead and, you know, sign his name. I don't even realize that that's a crime because you legitimately gave me that money. So are there any other crimes? You know, in that case that's truly fraud, but something that somebody could do and not even realize. Oh, you're breaking the law.
Speaker 3:Mobile deposit. Mobile deposit has become very popular. Yes, Not so much on an individual but a family. My wife does a job and she gets paid by a handwritten check. She mobile deposits it. Money goes into our account. She leaves it on the counter. I get up Saturday morning. Oh that's her paycheck. I take it, I go deposit it to the bank.
Speaker 2:You're doing her a favor.
Speaker 3:Right, Not intentionally trying to defraud. You know a bank or anything like that, but now we've just deposited that check twice.
Speaker 2:So who's going to jail you or her?
Speaker 3:Well, at that point it would be me the law enforcement agencies could spot an honest mistake.
Speaker 3:But I'm at the bank and they're like, oh, this check's already been cashed. They call the police. Hey, he's in the bank right now and I'm sitting there, you know, playing Candy Crush on my phone, waiting for them to deposit the check. But yeah, just be intentional with your mobile deposits. Let each other know what's going on. We've also had a case where a check was mobile deposited and they were notified that the funds would be available in 48 hours. And they were notified that the funds would be available in 48 hours. Well, they had to pay their car insurance that day. So they canceled the mobile deposit, brought it to the bank, cashed it, got the money paid their auto insurance Well, the cancellation of the mobile deposit didn't go through. It was again deposited. But once the money showed up in their account twice they call us. Hey, what do I do?
Speaker 2:You know, like well, or they think it's just a miracle.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly so yeah, mobile depositing. Just keep an eye on it. Use common sense Again. Be intentional with what you do with your money.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, this has been some good information. Hopefully it will help all of our listeners handle their money a little bit better. Keep an eye on it so that it will be safe, so that they can reach those financial goals for 2025. Any last pieces of advice that you want to give our audience.
Speaker 3:Just be safe. I know I keep using the word intentional, but that's the world we live in now, where you need to keep an eye on your money. Nobody is going to look out for your money like you will.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. Thank you, and hopefully this will help you keep your money safe so that you can financially thrive in 2025.
Speaker 1:It's time for Blueprint Building Blocks Quick, practical steps to strengthen your financial future.
Speaker 2:Let's start building. Educate yourself on common scams. Stay up to date on current fraud tactics and scams so you can recognize the warning signs and protect yourself from becoming a victim. Next, strengthen your passwords and security settings. I know I hate this too, but use unique, strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication on all financial accounts to help protect your account against unauthorized access. Now monitor your financial activity regularly. Regularly review your bank accounts and credit card statements for unusual activity. If something is wrong, the sooner you catch it, the better off you will be in the long run. And finally, protect your personal information. Be mindful of where and with whom you share personal details, especially online, to reduce your risk of identity theft.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap on today's Blueprint Building Blocks. Stay on track with your financial journey. Subscribe to the Money Matters podcast and visit neighborsfcuorg slash financial wellness for more tools to help you build a strong financial future.
