NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: Avoid Getting Scammed

By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

4/22/2024

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

The most significant legislative news of the last few days regards an announcement by Governor Kotek that she needed more information about seven water and sewer projects approved as part of a 44 project legislative infrastructure package. Last week, she signaled she was considering line-item vetos of that funding unless it was clear the projects pave the way for new housing.

Both the Governor and the Legislature are committed to building more housing and the infrastructure needed to support it. What distinguishes these seven particular projects is that they fund systems that support both new housing and also preserve existing housing.

A good example and one of the seven is a $3 million allocation to complete $12 million needed for a new wastewater treatment system in the small town of Siletz. Without a new sewer project, the Tribes can’t build new housing, the City could fall under a building moratorium (stopping any new housing builds at all), and existing homes would be at risk that they might not remain livable.

These seven projects were well-vetted by my office, a legislative housing workgroup, by the Legislative Fiscal Office, Capital Construction budget committee, legislative leadership, and ultimately overwhelmingly approved by the Oregon House and Senate. The Governor is within her prerogative to further vet them and I have welcomed the opportunity to answer her questions.

Since the potential veto notice was issued, we have met several times with the Governor’s office. We organized letters from the City and the Tribes. Lincoln County Commissioners have signed support letters as has every single mayor in Lincoln County. Even the Central Lincoln PUD sent a letter detailing the importance of housing in Siletz to our regional workforce.

I’m very pleased that this week, the Governor announced that funding for Siletz and the other water/sewer projects would move forward. That’s good news across Oregon as we work to replace aging infrastructure and expand our housing capacity. But there are more projects across Oregon in need of help. Small towns can’t afford these big projects. I will continue to work on this growing challenge.

Last Fall I brought legislators to Siletz to see the water and sewer problem for themselves. In March, Governor Kotek met with Tribal leaders in Siletz.

Alexander Graham Bell made his first phone call in 1876.

Today we’ve all got phones in our pockets and purses. But for decades, phones hung on our kitchen wall or sat by a lamp in our living room, connected to one another with copper phone lines.

In 2000, right around their peak, Oregon had 1.5 million residential landlines, according to state data, more landlines than there were households. Nearly everyone had a phone in their house and many people had more than one — with a separate line set aside for a fax machine, dial-up internet to America Online, or perhaps for the teenagers who spent all evening talking on the phone with their friends.

Now, federal data shows that slightly fewer than a third of Oregon homes have landline phones.

Oregon had fewer than 500,000 landline phones in 2022, the federal numbers show. That’s a mix of old-fashioned copper phone lines and internet-based phones that act, for the most part, just like regular landlines. At the same time, Oregon had 4.5 million working cell phones in 2022, according to the most recent federal numbers. That works out to nearly one cell phone for every person in the state.

So who are those people who can’t quit their landlines?

They may be people who don’t want to give up a phone number they’ve had for decades — porting a phone number from a landline to a cell phone is often possible, but it can be a big chore. Many landlines still use the old telephone network that is immune to many internet outages, and those phones frequently continue working even when the power is out. And unlike cell phones and internet-based phones, these landlines are subject to state regulations that govern service quality.

This information came from the Oregonian. You can see the full article here.

My phone rang last week – mobile not landline – and the caller said he was from my cable provider. He had my name and my account number. He patiently explained that because of my long and loyal history, they were prepared to reduce my monthly fee. They wanted to ensure I would not switch over to a streaming service. All we had to do was commit to three months of service and pay in advance.

We hung up, called the number we had for the provider, and were told they had never heard of such a promotion.

Scammers are getting better. They have more information, improved targeting, and credible offers. Their emails have fewer typos.

Oregonians lost nearly $98 million to fraud in 2023, according to a new Federal Trade Commission report, with no group — young, old, even the computer-savvy — showing immunity to the evolving and increasingly sophisticated scams, according to the FTC and other consumer protection groups.

More than 29,000 fraud reports were filed by Oregon residents, according to the commission. The median loss per victim was about $500. Oregon was the 13th most defrauded state based on money lost relative to the state’s population — $2.3 million per 100,000 residents.

Impostor scams, which can include romance-related ones, occur when a person is tricked into sending money, usually via wire transfer or gift card, by someone claiming to be someone else. Online shopping and review fraud can take various forms, including bogus stores or ads, and fake or dishonest product reviews.

Scammers might pose as a grandchild, romantic interest, or a government entity like the IRS or Social Security Administration. Always protect your personal data. Do not send money. The government isn’t going to request that you pay by gift card, wire transfer, crypto, or through payment apps.

The Social Security Administration has an excellent resource describing current scams and what to do.

Scams come in many varieties, but they all work the same way:

Scammers pretend to be from an agency or organization you know to gain your trust.
Scammers say there is a problem or a prize.
Scammers pressure you to act immediately.
Scammers tell you to pay in a specific way.

The Federal Trade Commission found that about one in four people who report they lost money to a scam say they paid them with a gift card. The FTC has worked with retailers, asking them to post signs that warn if you have been asked to buy a gift card to make a payment, it is likely a scam.

Here are some common holiday cons that scammers use, according to the Division of Financial Regulation:

Scammers impersonating a government agency, a business, or even a friend to swindle money. Government agencies will not contact you to demand immediate payment, and they never demand payment by a gift card.
Callers say they are tech support for a software company and then claim there’s something wrong with a device, ask for remote access, and then demand payment to fix it.
Scammers use “voice cloning” technology to impersonate a relative or friend, asking for money immediately but saying not to tell anyone.
Callers tell victims they won a prize and need to pay fees or other charges covered with a gift card.
Scammers pretend to be romantically interested on a dating site and then trick victims into buying them a gift card to send them money.
Scammers offer to buy something way over the asking price from a victim via an online banking system or check. The scammer asks you to deposit a check or accept the payment online and send the difference on a gift card. The payment bounces because the check is fake, and the victim is out of the gift card amount.
Some websites offering to check your gift card’s balance are scams. They will ask for the gift card ID number and PIN code, then use the information to steal money off of the gift card, according to the Better Business Bureau.
When buying a physical gift card, look for stickers covering the gift card’s barcode. The BBB warns consumers that scammers place fraudulent barcodes on real cards. The fake barcodes connect to a different gift card account which the scammer controls, so when you scan the card and check out, you’ll add money to the scammer’s account rather than your own gift card.

It bears repeating, don’t give personal identifying information to unsolicited callers, texts, or emails. If you are not sure, hang up, look up their number, and call them to verify.

Be skeptical. Ask questions and be wary of offers that sound “too good to be true.” Resist the pressure to act immediately. Stop and talk to someone you trust. Talking about it can help you spot the scam.

Never pay someone who insists you pay with a gift card, money transfer, or cryptocurrency.

If you think you’ve been scammed, call the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation’s consumer advocates toll-free number, 888-877-4984, or email them at dfr.financialserviceshelp@dcbs.oregon.gov.

The FTC says if you paid a scammer with a gift card, immediately tell the company that issued the card. Tell them the gift card was used in a scam and ask them to refund your money. If you act quickly enough, the company might be able to get your money back, according to the FTC.

The Legislative Policy and Research Office (LPRO) 2024 Legislative Summary Reports are now available. These reports summarize policy measures that received public hearings during the 2024 Regular Legislative Session, including bills, memorials, and resolutions. Measure summaries are organized into chapters by policy areas and by subtopics.

This is a great resource for anyone researching what Legislators accomplished—or tried unsuccessfully to accomplish—in terms of new policy or changes to existing policy during the session. These reports summarize policy measures that received public hearings during the 2024 Regular Legislative Session, including bills, memorials, and resolutions. Measure summaries are organized into chapters by policy areas and by subtopics

And, new this year, LPRO’s interactive dashboard gives folks an at-a-glance view of policy measures! The dashboard allows users to explore measures by policy areas and subtopics, learn whether or not the measures were enacted, or view measures by the chamber of origin. You can also use the search feature to find measures by words in the summaries or bill numbers. Try it out!

LPRO’s Summary of Legislation web page is here. The page is set up for browsing by policy topic for this year’s and previous years’ summaries. Click on the policy areas below to read the new legislative summary reports.

You can click on any of the policy areas to read the new legislative summary reports. As you’ll see, within each issue area you’ll find a number of subtopics. Very interesting and very useful.