With scams and identity theft on the rise, a Feb. 9 seminar in Levittown will aim to help residents of Wantagh, Seaford and nearby communities protect themselves from those looking to scam them.
The free event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Levittown Public Library. It is organized by State Sen. Steve Rhoads, Nassau County Legislators Tom McKevitt and Kayla Knight, and the Kiwanis Club of Levittown, and will feature experts from the county’s Office of Crime Victim Advocate, the Family & Children’s Association and the Nassau County Police Department. Attendees will learn how to recognize scam red flags, report incidents and recover from fraud.
“Whether it’s text messages, emails, telephone calls,” Rhoads said, “residents are being victimized by scams every single day.”
Millions of Americans, including thousands of Nassau County residents, are affected by scams each year. According to a recent survey by AARP, about 41 percent of adult Americans, roughly 110 million people, reported that they have had money stolen through fraud or misuse of sensitive information.
“The first thing I tell people,” McKevitt said, is “if you don’t know the number, do not pick up. Your doctor’s office will leave a voicemail. Your child will leave a voicemail.” McKevitt has done scam-prevention seminars for the past five years, he said. “We get more and more stories all the time about seniors being taken for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars due to scams,” he added.
The Federal Trade Commission reported that in 2024, consumers lost over $12.5 billion to fraud and scams — a 25 percent increase over 2023. A broader report from AARP estimated that identity fraud and scams cost U.S. adults a combined $47 billion in 2024. And according to a 2023 report by the FBI, more than 3,000 scams were reported across Long Island in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, and Nassau County residents lost about $73.9 million.
McKevitt shared three key tips: treat all unsolicited or unknown phone calls as suspicious; create a secret family code word to verify identities among relatives; and report anything suspicious to the police.
According to the State Department of Taxation and Finance, scammers often use scare tactics to get you to reveal your personal or financial information to them. They may demand immediate payment for a fictitious tax debt; threaten police action or deportation; or demand payment in a specific way, such as through prepaid debit cards, gift cards or in person.
“You are not bothering us — do not feel you’re bothering us,” McKevitt said of his advice to attendees to contact their elected representatives about suspicious calls. “After you’ve lost $75,000 in gift cards, now you’re bothering us, because to get that money back sometimes is almost impossible.”
Gift cards are especially risky because they function like cash, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Misuse is hard to trace, and most purchases can’t be reversed. Rhoads and McKevitt both explained that the emphasis is on preventing being scammed, because once someone is scammed, it is almost impossible to recover the stolen money.
“The real problem is that most of these scammers are outside of the jurisdiction — United States,” Rhoads said. “Which makes it incredibly difficult to try and bring those who are responsible to justice.”
Linda Crozier, president of the Levittown Kiwanis Club, said she believed it would be beneficial for the entire community to learn about how to detect potential scams. “It’s for seniors,” she said of the upcoming seminar, but added, “It’s for anybody.”
Crozier recalled that her own brother was scammed out of “a few thousand dollars,” and she shared a story of a friend of hers who lost money in an online scam. “I thought it was an important thing for our club to do,” she said of the seminar. “It’s our first time hosting something like this.”
Rhoads, McKevitt and Crozier all agreed that vigilance is the best way to prevent being scammed. “The best offense is a good defense,” Rhoads said.
“Take a minute to attend,” Crozier said and “find out what’s going on.”
Residents are encouraged to RSVP for the event by calling Rhoads’s district office, at (516) 882-0630.
