Crime statistics may differ between urban and rural communities, and the nature of individual crimes may vary. But at the same time, crime is crime—and urban and rural have a lot of things in common.
Fraud is on the rise in every community and older adults, regardless of where they live, are often the victims.
WISE Owls is a fraud-prevention initiative that aims to educate seniors how to be on the watch for scams.
St Paul and District Chamber of Commerce executive director Yvonne Weinmeier is involved with The Greater Lakeland Rural Crime Watch. Through that connection, she has become a WISE Owls presenter.
“We have a massive concern in our community with the crime and the vagrancy, and we can’t just sit back and wait,” Weinmeier said.
She was involved with integrated community meetings involving local stakeholders including the RCMP, municipalities, First Nations, and others. “We had so many people at the table and we got a lot of things done,” she said. “ MLA Scott Cyr was part of that as well.”
Weinmeier says the committee “kind of dissipated” in the fall, but she is among those working to regain its momentum. “I’m very passionate about getting that committee together again to find resolutions,” she said.
Volunteering in crime prevention led her to the WISE Owl program.
WISE, in this case, is an acronym that stands for Working together; Informing and educating; Safeguarding citizens; and Empowering through knowledge.
The idea isn’t to put out an alert for every scam that’s out there, but to help people recognize some of the indicators that an activity might be fraudulent.
“There’s no possible way we can talk about every scam and every possibility that’s out there. There’s so many, and it’s evolving every day,” Weinmeier said. “What we can do is talk the signs that come with it.”
The presentations are meant to educate people on “what those signs look like so we can trigger their thoughts to hesitate. Just to pause, think about that transaction, think about the request that’s coming to them or the opportunity that’s coming to them. And then hopefully stop the scams from happening,” she said.
The familiar frauds may be variations on old themes: the bank scams, the CRA/tax scams, the grandparent scam, or romance scams. Falling victim to one of these doesn’t mean a person is stupid or gullible, but is often an indication of how good the fraudsters are at what they do.
Older people are often targets because of social vulnerability, because they are trusting, or because they may be less comfortable with digital technology.
Romance scams work by building trust and the promise of an emotional connection.
“There’s a lot of seniors that are lonely,” Weinmeier said. “When somebody reaches out to them and they’re compassionate and romantic, you kind of fall for that ‘companion.’
“And that’s why that scam is so hard on the seniors because they have the money, they’re not aware, they’re just a little bit too trusting.”
She says the scam can leave people heartbroken, broke, and embarrassed.
“That’s the other part of the education piece with WISE Owls: there’s no need to be embarrassed,” Weinmeier said. “My gosh, some of the smartest people in the world are being caught with some of these scams.”
It’s important to talk to someone. “Make sure somebody’s aware of it so that those alarms can get triggered a little bit better for the next people,” she said, “so that they’re not going to go through that same situation.”
To a generation of people who grew up wanting to respect others and trust their intentions, it may be hard to suddenly be suspicious. But, Weinmeier said, “you have to be.”
“Suspicious might not be the right word for it. Alert, aware, cognizant of what you’re doing. And patient.
“If you’re being rushed into making a decision, or you have 24 hours, or ‘don’t tell people about this’ or ‘it’s a secret’? It’s a scam,” she said.
“Walk away. Hang up the phone, delete the e-mail, whatever. It’s that patience of ‘let me think about this. Let me go talk to my granddaughter or my daughter or my son or my wife and just see if this is actually legitimate.’”
When we think of rural crime we may think of brazen offences like break-ins, theft, or property damage. Fraud is worse in some ways because it is so insidious.
“It’s the sneakiest, most vicious crime that’s out there actually, because you don’t see it coming. And they’re so good,” Weinmeier said.
The WISE Owls program is affiliated with Alberta Provincial Rural Crime Watch Association. Presentations are free of charge.
“If you want to book a WISE Owl presentation you can reach out to me, but go to the Alberta Provincial Rural Crime Watch website and there’s an application on there to apply for somebody to come and do a presentation at your facility or for your people,” Weinmeier said.
“And,” she says, “it’s not just seniors that we need to educate. It’s every age group we need to educate about the filters and the flags and things to watch for.”
