March 2024
Our March speaker was Ted Barris, Member of the Order of Canada who gave us a fascinating account of World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic which was the key to victory or defeat. It took 2,074 days and nights to determine its outcome, but the Battle of the Atlantic proved the turning point of the Second World War.
Note: No images available
April 2024
At our Probus meeting on 3rd April , DC Ryan Black from the Peterborough police services joined us as the speaker for the session. Detective Constable Black focused on awareness of the many frauds and scams that are prevalent that criminal elements perpetrate on the public. He said that having conversations with community groups, like ours, is one of the best ways the police have of raising awareness and alerting the public so that we may guard against falling prey to some of these schemes.
He indicated that fraud is not new; but the technological basis for it, and it’s prevalence, is fairly recent. He explained that organized crime groups are now moving towards promoting fraud and call centre scams, at arms length, often from offshore international locations where it is hard to investigate.
He noted that seniors are often the desired focus for scammers largely because they tend to have sizeable liquid assets such as access to capital, cars, credit cars etc. He talked about some of the major scams, such as the robotic phone dialler “grandmother scam” which pulls on the emotions and anxiety of seniors who receive these calls.
He noted that scammers want you in a place of “emotional turmoil and stress” . He advised us to be careful; approach what we might think is credible information being presented to us by our phones and devices cautiously and with “ an attitude of distrust”. His bottom line was that we need to be wise, to the best of our abilities, in how you approach and use your electronic devices. Slow down and be thoughtful as we consider responding.
All in all an insightful and sobering reflection on the care and wisdom we need to adopt as we utilize all our technological devices!