To the Editor:
AARP Maine hosted a “Scam Jam” in Bangor on June 1st and we were pleased to welcome over 200 participants to the event. Scams and frauds in Maine are unfortunately on the rise and we hope through events like these to raise awareness and help Maine residents become great fraud fighters.
On behalf of all of us at AARP Maine, I want to thank our keynote speaker, Senator Susan Collins, whose leadership as chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging has helped propel the fight against these crimes across the country and right here in Maine. We also wish to thank Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton, Sergeant Kyle Willette of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit, Superintendent Will Lund of the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection, and Sergeant Pat Hood of the Maine State Police for delivering speeches and scam awareness workshops at the event.
As they did at our Scam Jam last year, MPBN broadcast “Maine Calling” live from the event featuring panelists Judith Shaw of the Maine Office of Securities, David Leach of the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection and Jane Margesson of AARP Maine.
Crimes related to scams and frauds have reached numbers that are out of control. Literally millions of Americans are losing billions of dollars to scammers every year and many of these crimes go unreported. As residents of Maine, we must become a united army of fraud fighters.
Scammers are relentless individuals who thrive on stealing any way they can. It is up to us to raise awareness about these crimes through proactive community awareness initiatives.
We hope that the Bangor Scam Jam can be one of those very initiatives and thank our community and state partners for making it such a success.
