Linton PD to offer seminart on ID theft, Internet, other crimes

By Halea Franklin, staff writer

The city of Linton and the Linton Police Department are co-sponsoring a seminar, which will be held May 30, on identity theft, Internet crimes, fraud and check scams.

The seminar, which is free to the public, will begin at 6 p.m. in the Roy Clark Building.

“We'll be talking about identity theft and ways to protect yourself from it,” explained Lt. Troy Jerrell of the Linton Police Department. “We'll also be giving out information if you feel you're a victim - where you need to report that and some steps to help get yourself back on line and on track to where you're protected again.”

Jerrell said identity theft is a huge problem nationwide.

“It's not something that's going to go away anytime soon,” he said.

Internet crimes and Internet safety will be another topic discussed.

“Internet crimes and Internet safety is a big issue today,” he said. “Probably just as big as identity theft.”

However, he said, identity theft isn't the only thing to worry about on the Internet. The safety of children is also something to worry about.

“We're going to go over some things to help protect your children and some things you need to be aware of and some programs that might be able to help you,” Jerrell said.

During the seminar, Gary Tannehill - a reserve police officer who also works as the city of Linton's Internet Technician (IT) - will have a computer hooked up.

Today, there are numerous ways people are making and producing fraudulent checks.

“We're going to go over some of the scams and frauds with checks and ways to protect yourself from them as well,” Jerrell said.

The entire evening will provide a large amount of information.

“It's going to be like getting a full course meal in a drive-up window,” Jerrell said.

More than half of the seminar, he said, will be questions and answers. If they cannot answer a question, he said they'll find the answer.

Jerrell noted that they'll be using information from several different sources.

He said the reason the chosen topics will be discussed at the same time is because they all tie together.

“You'll see that a lot of these will tie into one another and that's why we're doing all these at once,” he said.

Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Linton Mayor Tom Jones at 847-4487 or Jerrell at 847-4411.