Q&A
NYPD's approach to emerging threats and the Zelle scam example
1:12:18
·
6 min
Council Member Salaam inquires about the NYPD's methods for staying on top of emerging threats and notifying the public. Assistant Chief Jason Savino responds with a detailed explanation of the 'Zelle scam' as an example of how the NYPD handles new threats.
- NYPD uses technology to combat crimes, including a digital media truck for public awareness
- Detailed explanation of the 'Zelle scam' targeting individuals in public spaces
- NYPD's response included investigations, arrests, and a media blitz to raise awareness
- Emphasis on the importance of not handing over phones to strangers
Yusef Salaam
1:12:18
Absolutely.
1:12:19
So I wanna start by saying, you know, as the percentage of people's age is 65 and above continue to grow, New York City must adapt to becoming a safer, more supportive home for older adults.
1:12:32
In my district of Northern Manhattan, we have a wonderful network of senior centers, places like the 8 fillet randa 8 fillet Randolph senior center in Harlem, which creates a sense of community and offers a vital network of services to my constituents.
1:12:46
These wars these resources matter, but fruit but fundamentally, to thrive, our seniors since our senior citizens must feel safe.
1:12:56
To that end, improving quality of life is an important issue for my constituents.
1:13:01
And as an elected official, we must work to ensure that the city provides the support and the protection enable that enables a sense of safety to flourish This is particularly true when it comes to protecting vulnerable New Yorkers.
1:13:16
And those who might be targeted by criminals, we hear concerns of all the constituents who do not feel safe navigating streets.
1:13:25
Or feel there being targets of criminals merely because of their age.
1:13:31
We also know that older individuals are also too often the target of fraud and other cyber crimes and might face particular challenges in protecting themselves from fraud and obstacles and filing criminal complaints when victimized by criminal actions.
1:13:47
And so I'd like to start off by asking specifically the NYPD as technology advances and becomes more sophisticated.
1:13:55
The nature of fraudulent schemes perpetuated against older adults continue to evolve.
1:14:00
1, how does the NYPD stay on top of emerging threats and scheme?
1:14:06
To the fraud New Yorkers, and how does the NYPD notify the public as especially older adults on how to safeguard themselves from these games.
1:14:13
And I know some of this might have been already answered, but maybe like a drill down on on some of it as well.
1:14:19
Okay.
Jason Savino
1:14:20
Yeah.
1:14:21
I'll start just by walking you through another scam, be just because it it does play towards technology.
1:14:27
So we experience what I call a Zelle scam, and and what it was was a groups of young individuals would go into areas where people were on the loan, some parks, transit, and they would go into those areas midday and really engage in conversation with individuals that were sitting by them.
1:14:50
Selves.
1:14:50
They didn't like crowds.
1:14:51
They wanted to engage with people along.
1:14:54
And what they would do is they would carry a clipboard, and they would really give a sob story.
1:14:59
Say, hey, listen.
1:15:00
We need money for our basketball team.
1:15:04
We have no money.
1:15:06
We really need money for our basketball team, but we can't take cash.
1:15:10
We're not allowed to take cash because of our team.
1:15:14
Do you have any PayPal or anything like that?
1:15:16
All we're asking for is $2, $5, a small donation.
1:15:19
And a lot of people will succumb to that.
1:15:21
Right?
1:15:22
You're pulling on the heartstrings.
1:15:23
You're really pulling on everything you can.
1:15:26
And especially if you're alone and what they would do, they say, okay, no problem.
1:15:31
They would go into the phone.
1:15:32
And then the individuals somewhat aggressively would be, oh, listen.
1:15:36
Let let me just put in the account information real quick.
1:15:39
Just hand over the phone and then comes to the crucial point.
1:15:42
A lot of people would hand over that phone.
1:15:44
Why?
1:15:45
Because they pulled on those hard strings.
1:15:47
And the elderly were particularly susceptible to this.
1:15:50
And what would happen after that in in amazing time.
1:15:54
We have it on film.
1:15:55
We've seen it numerous times.
1:15:56
Individuals would download the entire account into their account.
1:16:01
And we saw this time and time again.
1:16:04
In response, what we did, obviously, investigators, we followed our leads, and we actually took down a small crew, traced them back back to New Jersey, made several arrests on juveniles, actually raised up New Jersey Police Department, and they made arrests as well, and then it became defunct.
1:16:23
But that plays certainly towards the technology.
1:16:27
It plays towards the apps.
1:16:28
It plays towards things that we haven't seen.
1:16:31
And what did we do with that?
1:16:33
We did a media blitz.
1:16:34
I actually did it myself.
1:16:35
But, you know, we're now we're raising awareness.
1:16:38
You know, this happened to actually miss New York, and it was on the news.
1:16:43
You know?
1:16:43
It goes to show how susceptible people can be.
1:16:47
And once we raise that awareness and the message was simple, don't hand over your phone.
1:16:52
You know, that's that's essentially your your bank your phone book, everything all in once.
1:16:59
Treasure that.
1:16:59
Don't hand it over.
1:17:01
The message got out.
1:17:02
It got displaced with the rest, and we had success.
Yusef Salaam
1:17:05
I think that that is that is really amazing and shows a lot of what I've been seeing as well.
1:17:11
I'm actually seeing people still handing over their phones, not necessarily to fraud instances, but because we're talking about the fact that many of the phones that we have have the biometric security And as soon as you hand your phone over to anyone, if they're not further protections on that phone, face recognition for bank accounts, fingerprinting, and so forth, a lot of times, Unsus expecting individuals will not realize that they are literally opening the door by handing over a phone.
1:17:42
You know?
Jason Savino
1:17:44
This group of individuals, twelve to approximately twenty two years old, literally making tens of 1000 of us with this skin.
1:17:52
Right now, it was an eye opener across the board.
1:17:55
My goodness.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:17:55
I wanna emphasize something, and I think you both alluded to this earlier.
1:18:01
This is a community education and and information issue.
1:18:06
I mean, we have all of these, but unless each one of us, NYC Aging, NYPD, but it is incumbent on everyone in the community.
1:18:18
To start sharing information and to being a source of distributing what the latest scams are.
1:18:25
They're much faster and smarter than we are.
1:18:28
And unless we keep the public informed, and we have the resources to do that.
1:18:34
But this involves an entire community that has to be partners in making sure that this information is disseminated.
