Have you recently received a text, email, or phone call that says one of your accounts has been hacked, you owe the IRS a lot of money, or that there is an arrest warrant pending for you? Does it go on to say that time is of the essence, and you must respond now … and does it also say not to tell anyone else while you are working to resolve the issue? If so, you are one of the 68% of Americans who have been targeted by global organized crime syndicates that scammed $200B in 2024 alone – greater than all the money derived from the drug trade.
During this month’s meeting of the Coronado Roundtable, Senior Director of SDSU’s Mission Valley Innovation District, Mr. Alex Altomare, and six students from SDSU’s Cyber Security Clinic presented a sobering, timely, and very current warning about cyber scamming – who is doing it, how they are doing it, and what you should know to keep from being a victim. Their focus was educating the audience on elder scamming, but they also highlighted that being a scamming target is not unique to any age group. Additionally, Mr. Altomare highlighted the role of the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center (located here in San Diego) that aims to transform how such scams are investigated and prosecuted.
While this write up could take pages to do justice to all Mr. Altomare and Team discussed, here are the key points they stressed to ensure you do not become a victim of cyber-scamming: don’t be rattled by claims of a hacked account, debt, or pending arrest; PAUSE, step back, and contact a trusted family member (or safe contact) before doing or saying anything; NEVER send money, gift cards, or crypto as a result of this type of contact. Also, don’t be embarrassed to discuss this with family and law enforcement – the perpetrators of these crimes are highly skilled extortists and many people fall victim to their scams.
The Team highlighted three different types of scams for which to be mindful: the grandparent scam (Grampa, I’m in trouble and need money), a romance scam (an online romance that seeks money without ever meeting), or, the newest version, the artificial intelligence deep fake that looks and sounds exactly like the person it claims to be … but is fictitious and is only a deep fake extortion vehicle. To combat the latter, the SDSU Cyber Security Team stressed the importance of a code word or phrase known only to you and your family that can be used to verify identity; for example, “Tell Aunt Betty,” either by itself or worked into a sentence. If the voice of your relative asking for money doesn’t use the code phrase, it’s a deep fake.
Should you become a victim of internet crime, the FBI (IC3.gov), Federal Trade Commission (reportfraud.ftc.gov), adult protective services (1-800-339-4661), and Coronado Police are reporting options. That said, most reporting organizations typically aggregate information from many submissions to build cases against criminal organizations; they tend not to work individual cases. Other support resources include the Identity Theft Resource Center, AARP Fraud Watch Network, and your friends and family.
Please join the Coronado Roundtable on November 21st (a week earlier than normal because of Thanksgiving Weekend) when the speaker will be Coronado’s Chief of Police, Paul Connolly.
VOL. 115, NO. 46 – Nov. 12, 2025
