Free · Forty-five minutes · Limited seating
Beat the Scammers
Why December Is Their Best Month
Between now and January you will be expecting packages, buying gift cards, giving to charities, and hearing from family who are traveling. Every one of those is something a scammer can hide inside.
Forty-five minutes on what is actually going around this season — and one thing to set up with your family before the first package arrives: a safe word.
Friday, October 23 · 9:00 to 10:00am
Friday, November 13 · 9:00 to 10:00am
Cedar Park Parks and Recreation, 550 Discovery Blvd, Cedar Park
Seating is limited. We never put out more than twelve chairs, because a room where everyone gets to ask questions has to stay small.
Save yourself a seat.
Select a session to attend below and provide your name and email. Check your email for a confirmation.
Seating is limited. Cedar Park Parks and Recreation, 550 Discovery Blvd, Cedar Park, TX 78613. Parking outside, step-free access. If the calendar below is awkward to use, email [email protected] and we will book it for you.
What happens in the room
Three quarters of an hour, and no lecture.
We show you what one looks like now
Real examples, played out loud. Not general advice about being careful — the actual messages and calls people around here are getting this month.
We give you one thing to set up
A safe word your family agrees on. It takes two minutes at the kitchen table and it is the single best defense against a voice on the telephone that sounds like somebody you love.
You ask anything you like
Bring the message you were not sure about. Bring your telephone. No question is too small, and nobody is made to feel foolish for asking it.
Why this season
Nothing new is invented in December. It just gets easier to believe.
The same handful of tricks work far better between Thanksgiving and New Year, and here is exactly why.
The parcel you really are expecting
A text saying a delivery failed looks exactly like the six real ones arriving this month. In July you would pause. In December you tap. We show you the one place to check instead.
Hurry stops sounding strange
“Act now or lose it” is how every store talks in December. The warning sign you rely on all year gets drowned out by people who are not scamming you at all.
The charity that appeared last month
Year-end is when people give, so it is when false charities surface. There are two free ways to check one in under a minute, and we will do it together in the room.
The grandchild who really is away
The emergency telephone call works best when the family genuinely is traveling — and a voice can now be copied from a few seconds of sound. This is the week the family safe word earns its keep.
One rule to take home
Six gift cards is a normal Tuesday in December.
Nobody blinks when you buy gift cards this month — not you, not the cashier. That is precisely why you are asked to pay with them.
No company, no government office and no family member is ever paid in gift cards. Not the IRS, not the power company, not your grandson. If gift cards are the answer, the question was a scam.
You do not need to prepare anything.
You do not need to be good with computers. Nobody is expected to be — that is rather the point of the room.
You do not need to bring anything — though your telephone is useful if you have one, because we can look at it together.
You do not need to stay afterwards or sign up for a single thing.
Come on your own or bring somebody. You are very welcome in twos, and the conversation on the way home is half the value.
Who is at the front of the room
Teresa Allsep
Silver Star Tech Academy. A career spent in risk management and incident response, making complicated systems safe for people to use — and nobody in this room is made to feel foolish for asking a question.
What you take home
Ten scams, one safe word, one page.
The ten scams going around right now, in large print and yours to pass on — each one marked with the warning signs it uses. And a family safe word, agreed before you go home. Not a plan to be more careful: something you have actually finished.
There is no pitch from the front of the room. Nothing to buy, and nothing to sign up for. That is the whole of it.
Both pages are yours to keep, and yours to pass on to somebody else.
For venues and organizations
Would you rather we came to your people?
If you run an HOA, a library, a senior center or a church group, we will bring the whole workshop to your room at no charge, and you tell your own residents or members about it. This page is for individuals; that one is for you.
