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Beachcombing
From Issue: Volume XX - Number 14
7/13/2012
Jay Beeler
Why am I not surprised over the brouhaha between Long Beach Transit and the City of Seal Beach wherein LBT has cut off service to that city? LBT Transit President Larry Jackson accuses Seal Beach officials of “unprofessional behavior” yet Jackson and his fellow managers have failed to act professionally with regard to this newspaper for the past 12 years.
Even though the Beachcomber is distributed in areas along the extremely busy Anaheim Street corridor and the northeast sections of this city not covered by other community newspapers, we have yet to see a single advertisement forthcoming from that organization. Their PR efforts are very poor as well. We strongly suspect that LBT’s chief administrative officer, Marchelle Epley, has a vendatta against us due to our prior support of the Home Depot facility approved by the City Council but opposed by those like her living in “The Hole,” aka University Park Estates.
How do you feel about LBT’s “unprofessional behavior” by cutting off transit service to Seal Beach? Go to our website and vote: www.longbeachcomber.com and email comments to editor@longbeachcomber.com.
In our July 27 issue we will release the results of our 11th annual “Best of Long Beach” survey in which more than 7,000 votes were tallied.
In keeping with the Summer Olympics theme, winners will now be accorded gold and silver level certificates, meaning those garnering the most votes in any category will be given gold and those achieving a secondary level of votes cast will be recognized with a silver certificate.
The bottom line is that there are many good businesses out there who previously did not get recognition and now will benefit from this new system. A good example is in the Mexican food category, which typically gets a high level of voter participation.
Winner notifications will begin Monday, July 16, and voter participation prizes will be mailed the following week.
Gloria, 78, who lives on Roycroft Avenue near our offices, called a few weeks ago, to report an attempted telephone scam involving her granddaughter and an urgent need to send $2,700 in cash to the scammer.
Lisa Massacani, public information officer for the Long Beach Police Department, provided the Beachcomber the following information to keep you and your loved ones from phone fraud:
Relative In Distress Scam – This scam has several variations and scenarios but a typical scam of this nature will go like this:
An elderly victim receives a phone call from a young man who poses as a grandchild, and says he is in Canada (or another far away location) where he was involved in an accident, in jail, or involved in some other crisis that requires money. He says he doesn’t want his parents to know and asks the victim to wire money to help him. He then says his public defender will call. A second suspect then calls to tell the victim to wire money to help her grandchild.
In some cases the caller may control the conversation in such a way as to convince the victim that he/she is actually a relative, such as prompting the victim to name the relative the victim thinks the caller is. For example, the caller may say “Grandma, it’s me, I need your help…” in which case the victim will likely ask “Is this Johnny?” providing the grandchild’s name. This tactic allows the suspect to continue the ruse with the victim feeling assured that it is her grandson with whom she is speaking.
Residents should be aware that anytime they enter a sweepstakes, sign up for certain store cards, or otherwise share their contact information, there is an increased chance that this information will be sold to other entities and may end up in the hands of a scammer.
To take preventative measures, residents are encouraged to remove their information from telemarketers’ lists by registering their telephone numbers on the “Do Not Call List” at http://ag.ca.gov/donotcall/.
Elderly relatives and neighbors should be alerted to these scams, screen phone calls instead of immediately answering, and if contacted by solicitors or anyone requesting personal information, should state they are not interested and hang up. Allowing the caller to engage one in conversation only opens the door for them to try additional tactics of persuasion.
If you know of a senior that has fallen victim to a scam and needs guidance to resources that might help, please call the Long Beach Police Department’s Senior Police Partners at (562) 570-7212.
Use common sense if contacted by anyone you don’t know who asks for money, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Unfortunately, telemarketing and Internet scams are widespread and happen every day. With the exception of Internet-related crimes, these scams are only handled by the police department if the victim has lost money, in which case the incident should be reported to the Forgery/Fraud Detail at (562) 570-7330. All scams and crimes occurring over the Internet should be directed to www.ic3.gov. Incidents of attempted telemarketing fraud, including from entities in foreign countries, should be reported to the Federal Trade Commission, which provides a complaint form on their website, www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov.
publisher@longbeachcomber.com
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