A4 • Friday, February 21, 2020 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Seaside School District Superintendent Sheila
Roley, project manager Jim Henry, and oversight
committee member Margene Ridout inspect work in
“C” pod at The Heights.
The Heights gym plans to see a wood fl oor installed the fi rst week of March. The green board is impact-resistant sheet
rock. The gym is scheduled to open after spring vacation.
GOING UP
Pipes connecting the middle and high school are
designed and clad to withstand seismic events.
School construction reveals activity everywhere
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
A
trip on the hill reveals activity every-
where: at The Heights, in driveways
and up the gravel road to the middle
and high school, where the three-story
structure recently received electricity,
generator power, retaining walls and painting.
Members of the Seaside School District
Construction Oversight Committee received
their monthly campus tour on Feb. 11, with
an opportunity to see the work, with a proj-
ect budget of more than $123 million, in
action. Work is scheduled for completion in
late July.
Duct work in the middle and high school building.
Above the high school and middle school, the
city is building a reservoir to serve the school and
surrounding residential area. This will be the highest
elevation of the city’s three reservoirs. In coming
weeks the city contractor will be pouring a tank
foundation and completing the north transmission
line to Sunset Hills.
Don’t get played by cheats, scammers, fl imfl ammers
SPAM!
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
Nearly every morning I get a voicemail
or text from a credit agency I don’t do
business with.
EVE MARX
’m a police blotter junkie; for my own
entertainment I read police logs from
everywhere. Currently I’m obsessed
with criminal scams. Cheats, fl imfl ammers,
hoaxers, swindlers, and rip-off artists love
targeting older folks.
There’s no end or bottom to the creative
tricks scammers use to get senior citizens to
part with their life savings or monthly social
security benefi t. The problem is so endemic
the offi ce of Social Security sent out a mass
email advising how to beware of scams.
Incidents of folks getting scammed fi g-
ure prominently in police blotters. Most
commonly, the scammer opens a credit card
in somebody else’s name, frequently in
another state. There are PayPal scams, and
scams hacking mobile payment apps, and
complex identity theft scams that are truly
mind-boggling.
The No. 1 fraud reported to police last
year were imposter scams; police say
imposter victims lost $667 million to scam-
mers pretending to be government employ-
ees, a family member in distress, or, saddest
of all, a romantic interest. When people lost
their money, they most often lost it with gift
cards.
Last week I read about a scammer who
took a 72-year-old man in New York for
$8,500. The scammer identifi ed himself
as a member of Apple tech. The man was
advised his computer was hacked. It was
I
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
Insurance Information Institute/Federal Trade Commission
recommended he purchase a security sys-
tem Apple would remotely install for his
future safety; he was directed to purchase
the system through a series of gift cards the
caller said he had to buy from three different
online retailers.The man complied with the
directions, but a few hours later got scared.
He called Apple who told him he’d been
had. Then he called his local police. Aside
from making a report, it didn’t seem there
was a heck of a lot he could do about it.
I personally receive at least six phish-
ing emails designed to entrap me every day.
I’m told there’s an outstanding invoice for
something I’ve not bought, or a package
of something I didn’t order scheduled for
delivery. For months I got emails claiming
to be from a well-known delivery service.
Nearly every morning I get a voicemail or
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
MULTIMEDIA
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Kim McCaw
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Darren Gooch
Joshua Heineman
Rain Jordan
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
text from a credit agency I don’t do busi-
ness with.
Valentine’s Day scams are common
among the elderly because the elderly are
extra vulnerable to the prospect of true love.
That makes widows and widowers easy tar-
gets for those who take advantage of the
victim’s loneliness and ready-to-love-again
heart.
Here’s a true story: An 80-year-old
Oregon widower was scammed out of
$200,000. According the Oregon Division
of Financial Regulation, which reported
the incident, an unidentifi ed scammer
stole a Florida woman’s identity and used
it to befriend an Oregon man. The scam-
mer used an online dating service to target
and contact him; after leading the man on
with weeks of sweet texts and emails, the
scammer convinced the man they were in a
long-distance romantic relationship.
Once the connection was fi rmly estab-
lished, the scammer persuaded the man
to send money for a business opportunity
in development. The scammer pretended
to seek investors and reported on imagi-
nary meetings. Documents were fabricated.
Trusting the documents, and the scammer,
the widower kept paying and paying.
Then the scammer disappeared.
The money’s gone. He was played.
You know that’s got to hurt.
The Oregon Division of Financial Regu-
lation published a few tips to avoid getting
catfi shed.
Don’t send money to anyone you’ve not
met in person. Be cautious about sharing
personal or fi nancial information.
Don’t transfer money to unknown peo-
ple or intermediaries. If you must use a third
party to send money, use a licensed money
transmitter.
Keep copies of all communications with
scammers and report them to the division,
online dating services, the FBI, the Federal
Trade Commission, and local police.
If you do fall prey to a scam, know it’s
unlikely you’ll get your money back. And
if anyone calls you from a number or name
you don’t recognize, don’t answer, or just
hang up.
Seaside Signal
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