The first meeting of the Cabernet Neighborhood Watch Committee was held on November 8, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. in the Raleys meeting room. Altogether, there were 15 people in attendance from our community in Cabernet Highlands.
Officer Andelin from Reno Police Department was on hand to offer assistance and advice on how best to proceed with forming and maintaining a neighborhood watch committee. He spoke with the attendees, querying their concerns. Many of the issues centered around car burglary and speeders.
Also present was Reno City Councilperson Bonnie Weber. Ms. Weber Hosted a meeting at Alice Smith School several weeks ago to promote Neighborhood Watch groups throughout Ward 4. She is committed to community outreach programs and has been instrumental in several improvements in the North Valleys.
Overall, the crime rate in our neighborhood has been typically very low. However, as the North Valleys continue to grow, the goal of the Neighborhood Watch group is to ensure the security of all our neighbors. Neighborhood Watch programs through, “Neighbors helping Neighbors” ensures the peaceful enjoyment of our homes and families.
The outcome of the first meeting was to establish a series of ongoing meetings to assist with teaching our neighbors better ways to ensure safety for their families and property; to encourage greater participation from more people; to provide communication resources through web page, email, and phone trees that inform people in our community; and to request from local agencies solutions to reduce traffic problems and crime going far into the future.
Officer Andelin spoke on the importance of reporting issues to our community leaders through local agencies.
For Emergencies call 911
For Non Emergencies call 775 334-2121
All others call Reno Direct 775 334-4636
Other sources of neighborhood information were discussed. Some suggestions were to attend the Neighborhood Advisory Board meetings held on the third Thursday of each month. Information is available via Reno City Neighborhood Advisory Board page at: https://www.reno.gov/community/your-neighborhood/ward-4
The next meeting of the Cabernet Neighborhood Watch group is tentatively scheduled for December 5, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. in the Raleys community room.
For information or to get involved, please contact Pat Shea or sign up on the website providing contact information.
Pat Shea 775 721 6742 pat100shea@gmail.com
Minutes Archive
News Archive
speeding
We have all been complaining about the speed some cars travel in our community. So, I think we all agree speeding is a problem in our community. However, this seems like a problem too large for any one individual to fix.
Let’s look at the problem and break it down into what cannot be done, what can be done and what can you do to help.
My name is Pat Shea. I started Cabernet Neighborhood Watch group almost 2 years ago with the intention of promoting safety in our community. www.cabernetwatch.org
I have studied this problem for the past year with the help of Reno PD and City of Reno Traffic Engineering. They responded to our request for speed/traffic calming controls by completing a series of traffic studies during Winter and Spring 2022/23. I then met with the City of Reno Traffic Engineer. He pointed out things we may not do to calm traffic.
Our streets belong to the City of Reno. The 3 major streets have been designated as emergency routes for fire, medical and disaster evacuation. Therefore, no devices that create an obstruction may be used to calm traffic. The following are restricted by City policy.
· Speed Bumps
· Speed Humps
· Speed Table
· Speed Cushions
· Rumble strips
This leaves us one option open to our neighborhood, Speed Warning Signs. These signs are a proven way to slow traffic. The Radar speed Sign manufacturer website has this to say about how the signs work
How Feedback Signs Work
“Radar speed signs operate on the principle of Feedback Loops, a concept that has proven effective in influencing behavioral changes. This approach involves providing individuals with real-time information about their actions and giving them an opportunity to modify those actions, thereby encouraging improved behaviors.”
You can read the entire article here
Speed Feedback signs work on two levels to address two types of speeding drivers.
First the signs address the distracted driver that is running late, thinking of something other than their primary task of driving or non-resident driver just passing through our community by helping to complete the feedback loop. This is 99.5 of all drivers.
Second, some drivers just don’t care about others in the community. Feedback doesn’t work on them. They are 0.5% of the drivers.
The signage we are proposing records traffic data All day, Every day. This data about speeder is collected and uploaded to Reno PD Traffic division. The patterns recorded and analyzed assists Reno PD in their assignment of traffic enforcement. Reno Traffic Officers use these pattern to determine the time violators are most likely to be in the neighborhood. This results in more efficient traffic enforcement.
Now, here is what you and I can do.
1. Become a role model Cost = $0.00
a. Begin driving to the Speed Limit. This tends to slow all traffic
2. Report violators Cost =$0.00
a. Fill out a report on Reno Direct/Speeding
b. Include the following items
i. The street (with cross streets) where the speeding is taking place.
ii. Include the approximate times of day it is at its worst.
iii. Note any chronic offenders, specific speeding issues or other helpful information.
c. These reports add to the data collected by the Feedback signs.
3. Help Purchase Speed Feedback signs.
The City of Reno will install and maintain these signs. Your donation of $40.00 would be a one-time cost to purchase these signs. Three signs placed throughout the neighborhood total cost of $13,000.
The first 2 cost nothing and can help immediately to reduce speeding.
The 3rd item I will ask you to please respond to the following question.
Would you be willing to donate to a community fund under the Cabernet Watch to purchase Radar Speed feedback signs?
Yes/No
If your answer is yes, You can help by recording you donation : GoFundMe/Purchase Radar Speed Warning Signs
Join us for our semimonthly meeting for Cabernet Watch Neighborhood Watch to learn more about this and other issues with in our community. And don’t forget to check our website and related posts.
Again, I am Pat Shea,
Coordinator, Cabernet Watch
Black Friday Safety
On the topic of Cybersecurity. Sometimes it is not so easy to spot the fake from the real thing. The question then becomes how to spot a fake advertisement from the real deal. Data shows an increase rate of online Black Friday Scams. Amazon alone
On the topic of Cybersecurity. Sometimes it is not so easy to spot the fake from the real thing. The question then becomes how to spot a fake advertisement from the real deal. Data shows an increase rate of online Black Friday Scams. Amazon alone has shut down thousands of fake ads pretending to be from Amazon.
To learn more, I attended a webinar on Holiday Security. With ever more opportunities to shop online, we are bombarded daily with offers for special deals. One of the takeaways from this hour long presentation showed me there are free tools available to help sort out these fraudulent ads.
1. Trend Micro Check is a one-stop tool and FREE 24/7 real-time online checking service. In a nutshell, Trend Micro Check helps users verify the trustworthiness and security status of information with ease.
How does Trend Micro Check Work?
2. Fake Spot is another tool (Works best if you use Firefox as your browser.)
Fake Spot looks for fake reviews online. Some companies pay customers for product reviews. Many of these reviews are completely false. Oftentimes, the 5 star review is also suspicious. Fake spot checks the authenticity of the review and provides a Grade from A-F.
Each of these tools is a add-on for Firefox and safari as well as other browsers. Use the directions below to add these to your online environment.
In Firefox, use your “Tools” tab, select “Add-ons and Themes” Search for FakeSpot add on. Click on the button to “add” the tool to Firefox. When prompted, select “Opt-in”
Note: I tested Fake Spot in Firefox and Safari. Fake Spot works much better in Firefox than in Safari.
AI ‘supercharges’ voice scam
Sitting at home one day in April, Dr. Rudolph Cumberbatch received a phone call from an unknown number. When he picked up, he recognized his grandson Eddie’s voice.
Eddie explained that he was calling from Ohio, that he’d been in a serious accident, and that though he was OK, his car had been totaled. He needed $18,000 immediately.
But when Eddie’s father, who was suspicious, called Eddie back, the 19-year-old was healthy and safe at home in his Chicago apartment. There had been no car wreck. A voice scammer had found Eddie’s popular TikTok Channel, sampled his voice with speech synthesis technology, and impersonated him.
"I sort of fell for it because basically, it sounded very much like him," Cumberbatch told Yahoo Finance. "I was so shaken up that I didn't even question it, because I get a lot of screwed-up calls and I always question these people. But this one I did not question at all."
Cumberbatch’s experience is one of many raising concerns among experts who worry that voice scams could pose an increasing threat to Americans as artificial intelligence, or AI, continues to evolve and makes it harder to detect what’s real and what’s not. Still, there are several ways Americans can protect themselves from being swindled.
"It's going to be extremely common, because what tends to happen in anything that is related to manipulated media, which this falls under, is once you have someone demonstrate the effectiveness of that technique, you're going to have an endless number of copycats who get creative with it and try to do a variation on the initial grift," said Wasim Khaled, co-founder and chief executive of Blackbird.AI, an AI-powered risk intelligence firm.
In March, the Federal Trade Commission warned of an increase in AI voice scams, while a recent McAfee study found that out of 7,000 people surveyed, one in four indicated they had experienced an AI voice scam or knew someone who had. The same study reported that 77% of those who received an AI voice call lost money.
Phishing! Don’t get hooked.
Though scams have always existed, AI has made them vastly more convincing.
For example, in romance scams, scammers have traditionally posed as prospective lovers to swindle their victims. Previously, fraudsters could connect with potential victims over email or messenger, but now they can use voice-cloning technology to disguise their voices as well. In other words, a male scammer could call a lonely old man with the fake voice of a young woman in an attempt to defraud him.
"There's impersonations, there's government agency scams, there's prize scams, there's gift card scams, caller ID spoofing," said Khaled. "All of these types of scams have been going on in one form or another… but being able to clone a voice now supercharges those existing scams that already worked pretty well, but create an additional level of authenticity as well.”
The McAfee report found that some scammers need just three seconds of audio of someone’s voice to create a convincing fake. Meanwhile, social media instructionals on voice cloning abound, meaning that even a mediocre scammer can learn the tech and produce impressive results.
Key Takeaway
In March, the Federal Trade Commission warned of an increase in AI voice scams.
But folks can still fight back, experts say.
"If you have some level of knowledge and some level of defense that you take personal responsibility for it … that's the only line of defense you have today," Khaled said, noting that from a tech perspective, there are no safeguards "in place yet."
"So you have to get educated," he added. Here’s how.
Have a security word
Experts say that security words are one of the most effective forms of defense against voice AI scams. That means coming up with a secret word or phrase, so if a fraudster calls and fails to give the secret phrase, you can be confident that you’re about to be the victim of a ruse.
"If they're asking for something like a ransom payment for a kidnapping, what is that secret word?" Khaled said. "Basically get ahead of the situation before it gets any further."
Consider location-tracking services
Dr. Michael Skiba, also known as Dr. Fraud for his expertise in scams and crime, said that tracking services like Find My or Life360 can help if you think you’re on the receiving end of a fraud.
For instance, if a swindler calls you and tells you he’s kidnapped your significant other in another country, you can verify whether that’s true on Find My Friends, which permits users to see their friends’ location on a map.
"So, if you get a call saying that your son or daughter is in Mexico and you look and they're at their college campus … you’re right off the bat thinking my flag should be out," he said.
Be wary of unknown numbers
Steve Grobman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at McAfee, advised folks to screen unexpected phone calls from unknown numbers. Many mobile providers offer call screening, where the caller has to provide identifying information before the user even answers the call. The cell providers sometimes label unknown phone numbers as "Spam Risk" or "Telemarketer."
"When in doubt, sending an unknown or unexpected number to voicemail is a good approach," Grobman said.
Be aware of your online presence
Take inventory of your social media accounts and channels where your voice is on display.
"One of the important things to do is to make any social media account private, and that is so that people can't just go onto a public Instagram account, grab audio from that video clip, and use it to synthesize a voice," said Khaled. "That's going to create a much bigger obstacle for anyone so that they can't have their voice out there."
Grobman warned users about the dangers of having too much information available online. He said that social media offers “a gold mine” for scammers who want to tailor their messaging to particular individuals.
"To better mitigate these risks, periodically review your social media connections and privacy settings to ensure you’re sharing only with people you know and trust," he said. "If you have an open social media profile, it’s critical to be more on guard when it comes to communications you receive, as the public, including scammers, have access to more information about you."
Hang up and call back
If you think you’re receiving a call from a scammer, hang up and call back. That way, you can confirm the identity of the caller.
"You call them back at their real number," Khaled said.
Even if the scammer posing as your loved one says they’re calling from a kidnapper cell, still call that loved one back on their usual number.
"If you call back the real number and they pick up, [everything is] … it's another great way to just quickly spot check," he said.
Pause and take a deep breath
Scammers try to generate panic to swindle their victims. When experiencing a flight-or-flight response, victims struggle to think clearly and tend to make impulsive decisions, like wiring vast sums of money to an afflicted relative or acquaintance. That’s why, Grobman said, it’s important to remain calm.
"Scammers prey on creating a sense of fear and urgency, since it means their victims are much more likely to act first and ask questions later," he said. "Taking a few seconds to calmly analyze the situation allows users to better identify fraudulent communications."
"The primary key to avoiding most scams is being vigilant and alert," he added.
Spread the word
Perhaps the best way to fight back against scams is to spread awareness, Khaled said. Warn your family, friends, and colleagues of the prevalence of AI voice frauds.
"It's not just your elder relatives now, because they're not the only ones falling for it," he added. "So spreading the word is critical if you happen to be the one that sees the information first."