Hello, this is ██████████ calling from the AARP Fraud Watch Network in ████████. I'm calling to invite you to join a live conversation happening right now to learn ways to help protect yourself and your loved ones from fraud and scams. We have invited the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA to join us to share ways to spot and stop a scam. This will be your opportunity to get the latest information about scams and fraud and learn more about the AARP Fraud Watch Network. Please stay on the line to join this important toll free conversation. If you need to reach AARP during regular business hours, please call ██████████████ or just stay on the line to join this important conversation. Please hold while we connect you to the AARP event. This AARP event is currently in progress. Please note that this call may be monitored, recorded or rebroadcast. If you would like to ask a question during Today's event, press Star 3 on your telephone keypad at any time. See time and time again in scam scenarios, scammers will often steer you away from any questions about their legitimacy and instead push you toward heightened emotion, fear, excitement, even panic. That's no accident. They deliberately create a false sense of urgency to get you to act fast before you've had a chance to think critically or to verify who they really are. That's why today's conversation is so important. We're joined today by █████████, Director at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Education Foundation. ██████ is here to help us understand how to verify that a person or organization is legitimate before sharing personal or financial information. So it's great to have you here, ███. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Great. So AARP is your wise friend and fierce defender. And when it comes to protecting yourself from financial fraud, one of the most powerful tools is verification. Our Fraud Watch Network helps you pinpoint suspicious activity in your area and gives you resources to confirm legitimacy. You can check that information out ███████████████ fraudwatch and sign up for Watchdog Alerts. If you'd like to ask a question about verifying identity or source legitimacy, press star 3 on your telephone keypad to be connected with an AARP staff member or volunteer. So ██████, we often hear that scams begin with unexpected outreach, someone calling, emailing or texting. Out of the blue, what are some key signs that the person contacting you may not be who they claim to be? And how can we verify their identity? Absolutely. So that contact out of the blue, that's a tactic that fraud criminals often use because it catches us off guard. It catches us outside of our game. So when for me personally, when a call comes in or when I get a text message, I always approach it with a healthy level of skepticism. I think to myself, you know, if I didn't ask for that person to contact me or for that service or whatever it is, why would they be contacting me? Another technique that I personally use is I only answer calls from no numbers. If it's somebody that's listed in my contacts and I know who it is, I'll answer it and I'll talk. And the reason I take that approach is because I know that I have a voicemail set up on my phone. So if somebody who's not in my contacts really does need to reach me, they'll leave me a message.