Wrightsville Beach Police Department to hold a community meeting on the problems of theft and fraud attempts

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Scammers stole more than 3.4 billion dollars from older Americans last year.

Because fraud and theft is a growing problem, especially among adults 60 and older, Wrightsville Beach police are holding a community meeting to address it. The FBI released a report this week, which said there’s a rise in losses through increasingly criminal tactics that trick vulnerable people into giving up their life savings.

Later this month, Wrightsville Beach police will have a local bank representative and a computer security expert to talk about the issue and ways to protect yourself.

“These are increasingly complex thefts that do involve some human contact. A phone call you didn’t expect, a phone call that seems to come free a reliable source, an internet message that appears to come from a reliable source. There’s a variety of ways that the victims are targeted,” Wrightsville Beach Police Chief David Squires said.

It will be held at the Wrightsville Beach Public Safety Building on May 28th starting at 5:30pm.