At the last Coochie Progress public meeting, local licensed real estate agent Rita Suters from RE/MAX On Point spoke about an elderly gentleman who had been targeted by scammers.

He was trusting. He was vulnerable. And he was fleeced of everything. 😢

Listening to Rita, I was nearly in tears. It is difficult to comprehend how someone can deliberately build another person’s trust, identify their vulnerabilities and then systematically take everything they have.

But the part that really landed like a punch came next

Rita said the person who targeted him had been a member of a local Facebook group.

And I immediately wondered whether that group could have been Coochie Community, where I am a co-admin alongside David and Tracie.

We don’t know that it was. But we do know scammers have entered our group.

We thought the gate was fairly secure

Coochie Community already has membership guidelines and joining questions designed to establish whether someone has a genuine connection to the island.

But the uncomfortable truth is that people intending to cause harm have sometimes slipped through.

Scammers have become more sophisticated. Their profiles can appear completely genuine, with photos, friends, family details and years of apparently normal activity. Sometimes the scammer is using a stolen or hacked account belonging to a real person.

So, while we thought our membership checks were reasonably stringent, it is time to up the ante.

Changes are coming.

We will be reviewing how new members are admitted and tightening the information required before someone is approved.

With more than 5,000 existing members, reviewing the current membership will be quite a job, but we will also be looking more closely at suspicious accounts and activity already inside the group.

This will not happen overnight, and no Facebook group can promise that every member is genuine. But we can make it considerably harder for scammers to get through the gate.

Group membership is not a

guarantee of trust

Being admitted to a local Facebook group does not mean a person has been personally verified or endorsed by its admins.

Each of us still needs to do our own checks before sending money, sharing personal information or agreeing to anything through a private message.

Over the coming days, we will be releasing information and resources to help members:

• recognise common scams
• identify suspicious profiles and advertisements
• protect personal and financial information
• report questionable activity to the admins
• approach someone who may be caught up in a scam without shaming or alienating them
• know what to do if money or information has already been handed over

Your active participation in this will be greatly appreciated.

If a post, profile or private message feels wrong, please take a screenshot and alert the admins. Don’t worry about feeling silly or wasting our time. We would much rather check something harmless than learn later that somebody had been hurt.

A very current example

The screenshot accompanying this article is from a former group member attempting to sell a set of barbells.

The problem is that the same barbells, using the same images, were advertised by another suspected scammer only a couple of weeks earlier.

This is a common Marketplace-style scam. The seller claims the item is attracting plenty of interest and asks you to pay a deposit, or sometimes the full amount, so they will “hold” it for you.

Then the seller, the money and the barbells all disappear.

So, please remember this one:

Never, ever pay upfront to have an ordinary second-hand item held for you.

If the seller creates urgency, refuses to let you inspect the item or insists that payment must be made immediately, walk away. No bargain is worth gambling your money on.

This only works if we look out

for one another

The aim is not to turn Coochie Community into a suspicious or unfriendly place. Quite the opposite.

A strong community is one where we can trust one another, but also where we feel comfortable saying, “Something about this doesn’t look right. Can you check it with me?”

Scammers rely on urgency, secrecy and embarrassment. Community is one of our best defences against all three.

So, the next time you see an irresistible bargain, receive an unexpected private message or hear that somebody you care about is sending money to a new online friend, pause.

Stop. Check. Ask.

And if you are unsure, send it to one of us. We would much rather help before the money is gone.