Meeting Notes, July 11, 2017

8:00 Opening Bell

8:10 Past President Brian Neumann, filling in for Club President Ben Shelton, called the meeting to order.

Nasser Shaheen offered the prayer and led the pledge.

 

Ivan Bennett reported on the sign ups that have been gotten thus far for the Rotary Reader program.  Remember that spouses are welcome to volunteer as well.  If you have questions or wish to sign up see Ivan.

 

John Carroll, who is the new membership committee chair, shared that there will be three areas of focus for the new year.  They are: Recruitment; Less involved becoming more involved; and Engagement satisfaction.  If you have suggestions, please contact John.

 

Tomorrow, Wednesday July 12, is the Savannah Bananas event.  It is a double header but probably will only be staying for the first game.  The bus will leave at 4:15 from the baseball field at the high school.  There is still time to sign up.  There are 33 going, but there is room for more. Cost is $15 per person which includes tickets, snacks and transportation.  

 

Next week, Tuesday July 18 the meeting will be a Club Assembly.  There is also a board meeting at night at the Hickory Tavern.

 

Tim Ridge reported that Roger Burns fell last Friday and broke his femur.  He is now at MUSC where a successful surgery was performed.   Roger is up and about and in good spirits. He will be at MUSC for a few days yet before returning home. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

 

New Sgt. at Arms Chuck Wiseman started off the year by introducing visiting Rotarians, announcing important milestones, collecting Happy $, and telling a "bad joke of the day".

Visiting Rotarians: Dick Blankenbeher (North Little Rock); Richard Rorschadte (Kilgore TX); Jackie Minotas (Cleveland, Ohio)
Birthdays: Ron Dziekan, Mike Davis, Brian Goode, Lynn King
Anniversaries: Mike and Jeanette Davis
Rotary Anniversaries: Neil Castelland (4), Otto Ferrene (34), Jim Rowe (34), Bob Jones (2)

 

Special Agent George E Graves, Jr. from the FBI  Columbia Field Office was our speaker.  He is a twenty one year veteran with the FBI and is assigned to the Columbia Field Office, Hilton Head Resident Agency.  He is a native of New Jersey and has conducted complex white collar crime investigations, which included public corruption, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, health care fraud and civil rights. Special Agent Graves has investigative responsibility and Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton Counties.

An expert on fraud,  Special Agent Graves began by putting $5 in Happy$ because he said these days he is happy "just to be invited anywhere".  He has spent most of his career working on fraud and spoke of how technology has contributed to the crime of fraud.  He gave several examples of scams, particularly related to our area, as well as some "red flags" that you should watch out for.

 

One scam is the IRS scam - a phone call is made telling you that your taxes have not been paid and unless you pay them you will be arrested.  First red flag is, the IRS would not make this accusation over the phone.  They would come to your door and make the charge. Second red flag is they will tell you to make payment by using a "green dot" card.  This is a card that you put money on and they will be able to get the money when you give them the number.  Not traceable to them.  Another red flag is if they ask for you to wire the money via Western Union - money gram.  If you get a phone call from the IRS - don't panic - that is not how they do business.

 

Another local scam which took place 2015-16 was the "jury Duty Scan".  Again a phone call telling you that you missed jury duty and need to pay the fine.  This particular scam was being pulled off by inmates at a correctional facility in Georgia.  Several correctional officers smuggled smart phones into the inmates who then extracted real names of law enforcement and judges in the lowcountry and used this information to attempt to get payments wired to them.  Many were arrested in this case and it involved hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

Another scam locally was an online dating scam, dubbed the "lonely heart romance scam".  The perpetrator created a profile on a dating site, and for months developed a relationship with a wealthy lady.  After gaining her trust, he told her about a business venture that he had needing money.  He asked her to wire money to a third party (again a red flag).  Several payments were made to him totally almost a half a million.  After his guilt was revealed to the lady she found it difficult to believe.  

 

Realtors and lawyers are another target for scammers.  A phony email page will be sent to the business, with an appealing service or something related to business.  When the link to the "information" is followed, malware is introduced and the frauder captures the email and begins monitoring email traffic.  Eventually will take over the account at an opportune time to change links to forward payments to.  Hundreds of thousand of dollars have been scammed in this way.  Always DOUBLE CHECK who the emails are coming from (every single character in the email) before following payment information.

 

Some tips from Special Agent George Graves:

Don't respond to account requests to update information 

Change passwords regularly

When traveling, do not use kiosks to check bank account or enter other login information

Be aware that skimmers often attempt to get your info when you are charging a purchase at gas pump

Credit cards offer more protection than debit cards

Watch for the red flags : Green dot cards, request to wire money, request to send money to third party

Phone call (fraudsters use phones that cannot be tied back to them

 

Lots of great information -  be aware!