Businesses and their employees can help reduce crime by watching out for potential victims, according to Olds-Didsbury-Sundre Rural Crime Watch secretary-treasurer Judy Schlichenmayer.
“If we can get people to come together and become educated on what to watch for and what's going on (that would help),” she says.
One big issue right now is fraud.
“I was just down in Didsbury for a media report and one poor soul got a call from supposedly Revenue Canada,” Schlichenmayer says.
“She's an elderly lady – she's in her 60s – and they threatened to send her mother to jail if she didn't send them $3,000 of iTunes gift cards. So she went down and bought the cards but one of the questions is, as a merchant and you see that, you know, just take the extra step and ask her, like, ‘what's going on?'”
She notes it's pretty unusual for someone to buy $3,000 worth of iTunes cards, but that's a common way scammers obtain money from victims, as RCMP and several news media have reported.
“That's something that should be a kind of flag. So we're just kind of saying as a Rural Crime Watch Association we want to have people watch out for each other,” Schlichenmayer says.
Olds Chamber of Commerce president Stephen Dodwell agrees businesses and their employees should try to help prevent customers from being scammed, especially if they see something unusual, like the purchase of $3,000 worth of iTunes cards.
“If you're going into a store and buying $3,000 worth of iTunes (cards) I would have thought that would have raised a red flag and I would have thought that perhaps you could ask,” Dodwell says.
However, he can understand why that may not happen.
“It's a hard one because people get a little bit upset if you're questioning them sometimes. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and you think you're trying to help and the reaction from the person you're trying to help isn't always very positive. That's a tricky line,” he says.
“If I'm a shop assistant and I've had a bad day and people have been jumping down my throat, so to speak, then do I really want another argument? Someone might say, ‘mind your own business.'”
He says the best solution is likely for the news media to continue publicizing scams and for people to consume that news and follow advice to avoid being scammed in the first place.
“If in doubt, ask. Or check it out with somebody because the genuine people won't mind,” Dodwell adds.
"We're just kind of saying as a Rural Crime Watch Association we want to have people watch out for each other."JUDY SCHLICHENMAYERSECRETARY-TREASUREROLDS-DIDSBURY-SUNDRE RURAL CRIME WATCH
