This past Saturday, October 3, was WORLD ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION DAY. Mohammad Muzahir, an IT professional was kidnapped and forced to run scams or risk being tortured.) His story is a must read (find it on Wired, a tech magazine.) This is so important, I had to post it for all to read. Picture an office where people get paid to make strangers fall in love with them. Rows of desks. Scripts. Daily targets. That's not a movie. It's real, and it's aimed at us. Here's his story. Mohammad is a computer engineer from India. He took what he thought was an IT job in Laos. When he got there, they took his passport. He'd been trafficked into a scam compound in the Golden Triangle and forced to run romance and crypto scams targeting Americans. While he was trapped there, he secretly leaked thousands of pages of the compound's internal material to WIRED reporter Andy Greenberg. He was beaten, starved and drugged before he finally got out. Mohammad, thank you. You risked your life so the rest of us could see how this works from the inside. And what it shows is that these aren't lone crooks in a basement. They're organized businesses with managers, scripts and quotas. NPR reported that one small group of about 30 scammers brought in roughly $2.2 million in three months. I spent 25 years as a licensed investigator. Here's what I want you to take from this: - If someone you've never met in person asks for money or pushes you to invest, stop. Talk to someone you trust before you send a dime. - If it already happened to you, it's not your fault. You were up against trained professionals. Report it at ic3.gov. - If it happened to someone you love, don't judge them. Just listen. Shame keeps victims quiet, and the scammers count on that. The FBI says Americans 60 and older reported $7.7 billion lost to online crime in 2025, about 60% more than the year before. Romance scams alone accounted for $929 million. Please share this with one person who's dating online or chatting with someone you suspect new.

Click on the link to be taking directly to the weekly briefing for 9-20-26. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TCmLYaOCIoeSNA6YaWAoT4nfI2slD5Na/view?usp=sharing

Activity Directors Safety Net helps activity directors recognize scams earlier, educate the seniors they serve, and respond with more confidence when suspicious situations arise. Members get practical fraud-prevention resources, scam alerts, discussion ideas, training support, and shared experiences they can use in activities, staff education, and everyday conversations with residents. The goal is simple: give activity directors useful tools and a supportive community so they can help create a safer, more informed environment for seniors.