 I'm TJ Dunovan, Vermont's Attorney General, and I'm Monica Hutt, Commissioner at the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living. Every year, hundreds of older Vermonters are victimized by professional scammers trying to rob you of your identity, your resources, and your sense of safety. But there is something you can do to protect yourself. This series, Stay Savvy Vermont, is designed to show you how those scams work and what they look like so that you can identify them and guard against them. Stay Savvy Vermont is a collaboration between the Vermont Attorney General's Office, the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living, Cove, and Cove's SMP Savvy Seniors, and Orca Media. Our goal is to give you information to protect yourself and your families from scams. And to tell you what resources are available to you if you think you've already been scammed. This is information you can share with your friends, your family, anyone you think may be a target. Protecting ourselves, protecting each other, that's what we can do to combat professional scammers. We hope this series will be the first line in defense to keep ourselves and everybody safe and free from exploitation. Stay smart, stay safe, stay Savvy Vermont. Oh that, look, and I'm in no mood for any of your nonsense. You want to hear some really interesting news or are you just going to crab at me? Depends. On what? You know. I know what. Just tell me. Tell you what? Enough of this. You're getting on my nerves. Can we at least stop arguing about whether Ruthie is still alive or not? I hate arguing about it too, but you know neither one of us actually saw our body, did we? So how do we know for sure? Because we have a signed death certificate from the U.S. Embassy in Tibet. Six of Ruthie's party died in that avalanche on Mount Everest, and the government had no choice but to leave them buried there under the snow on the mountain. I know, I know it sounds horrible, but we can at least take some consolation in knowing that Ruthie died doing what she loved, and they did reach the summit. So you keep telling me? Well I know it's hard to think about it, but that's the reality. We've just got to live with it. So you keep telling me. And now smarter than me, brother. Maybe you can explain to me how Ruthie managed to max out her credit card while buried in an avalanche in Tibet. What? Now what are you talking about? Here's your Visa card. It looks like Ruthie has gone hog wild in some of the fanciest stars of Los Angeles. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Ruthie didn't even have a Visa card, and we canceled her her Mastercard as soon as we heard about the avalanche. That may very well be true, but guess what? Here's another statement from American Express. Oh, oh boy, oh boy. You know what this is, don't you? I've got the uneasy feeling you're going to tell me it's not Ruthie. You've got that right. This is a classic case of identity theft. Somebody got a hold of Ruthie's personal information like her social security number, and they set up a fake account in her name. We've got our work cut out for us. So what do we do now? Well, we've got to notify the credit card company, and then we have to check our own credit reports to make sure nothing's going on there, and we need to do it right now. Oh geez. What a roller coaster. I've gone from the depths of despair to the heights of hope, and full court punch in the stomach all in the space of about five minutes. What do I do if my credit card bills or bank statements show purchases that I never made? Contact your bank or credit card company immediately. Tell them which purchases you do not recognize on your bill or your statement, and ask them to temporarily freeze your account so that no additional fraudulent purchases can be made until your issue can be resolved. Your bank or credit card company should assist you to ensure that it doesn't happen again. Is there any way to protect my personal information to avoid my identity being stolen and accounts being set up in my name? Scammers and identity thieves can't use your personal information if they can't find it. Therefore, you should always keep your social security card, insurance cards, credit cards, checkbooks, and other documents containing personally identifying information in a safe and secure location. When you're out in the community, keep these items on your person at all times. At home, keep them hidden and out of sight. You should also regularly monitor all of your bank accounts and credit reports to watch for suspicious activity. There are many free credit monitoring services you can access that can assist you with this. Also, never give out your personal information online and never provide it to anyone who calls you asking for it. Where can I report it if I suspect that someone has stolen my identity? Call the Attorney General's office. We have a consumer assistance program set with people who want to hear from you. Call 1-800-649-2424 or go online and visit consumerdibermont.gov. If you need help, immediately call your local law enforcement agency or dial 2-1-1. The Office of the Attorney General recently launched a new scam alert system. Because so little can be done once the scam has occurred and money has been transferred, the purpose of the scam alert system is to notify people and prevent the harm from happening in the first place. How this system will work is participants can sign up for receiving a scam alert through either email, text, or phone call. And once a scam has been launched, the Office of the Attorney General will send out an alert through either text, email, or phone.