12:05 Via Zoom President Michael Scar welcomed Rotarians and Guests to the Rotary Club of Ojai!
Terry Beckett led the club with the flag salute and Dr. Fred Fauvre led the invocation.
The meeting was called to order and President Scar thanked Terry for the flag salute, Dr. Fauvre for the invocation, Tara for facilitating the Zoom meeting and Andy as the Greeter.
Rotarians and Guests
Two long time Rotarians were welcomed: Dr. Robert Skankey and Pradeep Kapadia
Announcements:
Therese Brown shared upcoming programs:
August 28th: Get Acquainted with Jennifer Berry and the Crew,
September 4th: Jeff Loebl speaking on Bioethics in Today’s Complicated World,
September 11th: Patrick Heitkam Online Magic
Tara asked members to look out for the Taste of Ojai email. It’s being completed redesigned because of the pandemic! President Scar reminded club members to buy tickets and support through sponsor opportunities.
Rotary Cartoon
Fining and Confessions:
Fred Farkhani led Fining and Confessions.
Al West confessed celebrating his 87th Birthday.
Terry Beckett confessed that his son got married last Saturday.
Don Reed confessed he will be celebrating his 77th Birthday this weekend.
PK gave
a shout out to Dr. Skankey for his awesome work in sponsoring students in Africa.
Sue Gilbreth confessed that she and Bill were buying an Airstream camper.
Janet Campbell confessed returning from a 3 ½ week camping trip.
Bill Prather confessed he will be celebrating his 49th Wedding Anniversary.
Al West updated the club on the California fires. All California crews have been engaged and several hundred homes have been lost with thousands of acres burned. CV19 has also made staging of the crews more of a challenge.
Bob Davis reminded the club of the hardships our community endured during the Thomas Fire and asked members to consider helping those up north.
Fred’s fining questions were around the 1918 Pandemic. Club members were asked to send fines to Marc Whitman.
The Program: Laurel Sykes--Identifying and Protecting Against Fraud and Financial Abuse
Therese Brown introduced Laurel Sykes.
Laurel Sykes is the Executive Vice President, Chief Compliance and Risk Officer for American Riviera Bank. She holds the designation of Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager, with almost 30 years of experience in the banking industry.
During her career she has implemented enterprise-wide risk management, compliance, fraud, anti-money laundering, vendor management and business continuity programs for banks ranging from $1 billion to $7 billion in assets. She currently oversees regulatory affairs and enterprise risk management for American Riviera Bank, and leads the Bank’s consumer compliance function and the anti-money laundering/financial crimes unit. Also reporting to Laurel are the Bank’s Human Resources and Employee Learning departments, as well as the Marketing and Product Management functions.
She graduated with a degree in Business Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
As American Riviera Bank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer, Laurel volunteers her time to teach financial literacy throughout the Bank’s market, and has presented both locally and nationally on programs to prevent financial scams targeting seniors. She is the Bank’s Security Officer, and a member of the Central Coast Scams Against Seniors working group, which is co-facilitated by the FBI and the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office. She lends her expertise in elder financial abuse and consumer compliance to the Consumer Finance Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia as part of a working group that is currently examining opportunities for financial institutions to improve elder fraud and financial abuse detection and prevention programs and reporting
Laurel gave an excellent presentation on some of the current types of abuse and fraud she has seen in her roles. They are:
Tech Support Scams
Mass Mail Scams
Sweetheart Scams
Counterfeit Check Scams
Sweetheart Scams
Grandparent and Imposter Scams
Compromised Email Accounts
Caregiver fraud
These threats may look legitimate and have information about you that would confirm their legitimacy. If it looks shady, don't click on the link. Get phone numbers or addresses from trusted sources and do your due diligence.
Listed, are some sites that may be helpful to learn about fraud and abuse and reporting.
To Report Identity Theft and Fraud:
Thank-You, Ms. Sykes for a timely and informational program.
Final Thoughts...
President Scar ended the program with a closing quote:
“Courage is the price that life extracts for granting peace.”
Amelia Earhart
