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Officer warns Carpinteria residents about rising scams targeting seniors and small businesses
Summary
Officer Erika Pereira told the Carpinteria City Council about common fraud schemes — grandparent impostors, government impersonations, tech-support malware, romance and donation scams — and urged residents to verify callers, avoid immediate money transfers and report incidents to the IC3 and the city.
Officer Erika Pereira presented a fraud-prevention briefing to the Carpinteria City Council on Nov. 24, describing the tactics that scammers use and offering steps residents can take to avoid losing money.
Pereira said the patterns include callers pretending to be relatives in distress, impostors posing as law-enforcement or social-service workers demanding payment, fake sweepstakes links that steal data, and tech-support scams that install malware. “Si le piden que actúe de manera inmediata, que envíe dinero, preste atención a eso,” she told the council, urging residents not to send money or prepaid cards in response to urgent-sounding demands.
She outlined concrete precautions: do not click unknown links or pop-ups, verify any caller by calling back on an official number, do not give PINs or Social Security numbers over the phone, and note transaction details (recipient name and payment method) if funds have been sent. Pereira pointed attendees to the FBI/IC3 site for reporting and for more information.
Pereira gave local context: between June and November 2025 she said the area between Carpinteria and Montecito recorded 16 cases of check alteration (so-called “check washing”) and described multiple local incidents in which victims lost thousands of dollars after following instructions from callers. Council members and residents raised questions about detection and recovery; Pereira described fraud rings as often organized and cross-border, making recovery difficult but reporting essential.
The presentation closed with practical outreach steps: the city offered to share materials and the presenter said she could return for community forums. Council members thanked Pereira and several residents recounted near-miss calls to reinforce the urgency of public education.
