This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
What do daily newspapers, local TV news broadcasts and scams via the internet and/or phone have in common?
Their audience/target market tends to skew to the more elderly.
I am elderly and an avid daily newspaper reader. I rarely watch local news, although I am sure many do, and I absolutely hate internet/phone scams, which I believe everyone does.
Proposal: Daily newspapers and all local TV newscasts print or broadcast daily or at least weekly reports advising of local scams that are occurring in our area.
Example: Scam report for the week of June 26. The following scams have been reported in the Salt Lake City area.
Phone scams: Purported IRS agents threatening legal action; a person calling about problems with a credit card; a person calling about problems with your computer.
Internet Scams: A notice from FedEx about a problem with a delivery; a notice from Amazon about a canceled order.
There could be a brief bit of information about how to deal with such scams and how to check if they might be real, as well as an 800 number and email address to report newer scams.
This would be a great service to your community and could even start to reduce the number scams as folks become more aware of them.
Gus Wheeler
Salt Lake City