Posted by Dave Panabaker on Jan 14, 2019
The Rotary Club welcomed Ron Riemann, an accredited Business Service Consultant with the Better Business Bureau (serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenay).  Ron took some time to explain the origins, funding and purpose of BBB.  The BBB was created in 1912 and now has a total of 113 Bureau's across North America.
 
 
He took some time to speak about the Mission and Values of BBB, which is NOT a gov't agency, gets NO funding from any level of gov't, is NOT a "for profit" business or a regulatory agency.  They are really in the knowledge and education business, for consumers and service providers.  Much more information is available on their website at http://bbb.org/calgary 
 
He outlined the Top 10 Scams of 2017, spoke about how technology is changing the nature of scams and cons, and that law enforcement is likely not to get involved.  He spoke about the $95 Million dollars lost to scammers in 2017 just in Canada, and that they tend to prey specifically on teens and seniors.
 
The top three scams were
  1. Online purchases
  2. Wire Fraud/Spearphishing
  3. Online Dating scams
A great presentation from an authority in the field.  His parting advise, "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!"  Beware.