_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD
Your Local Jeweler For Joy This Year
Also serving Bay Park
1325207
Snow didn’t stop this party Page 3 Vol. 32 No. 51
DECEMBER 18 - 24, 2025
29 Atlantic Avenue , Lynbrook (516) 599-1979 • un icornjewelsinc.com
$1.00
Experts warn of scams, fraud hitting seniors vice with the company. In another case, a local ice cream shop employee was persuaded A wave of electronic fraud by a caller impersonating an and identity theft reported to IRS agent to purchase Green the Lynbrook Police Depart- Dot gift cards, and lost more ment this year reflects a broad- than $1,000 in personal funds in er surge in increasingly sophis- addition to store money. ticated scams across Long (Victims’ names were redactIsland, many of them targeting ed in police reports provided in older residents response to a Freethrough fear, urgendom of Information cy and impersonLaw request.) ation. In the most According to severe local incipolice reports dent, a woman o b t a i n e d by t h e withdrew $30,000 Herald, victims from a Citibank h ave b e e n p r e s account after a callsured into sending er claiming to be money to scammers with the FBI said through Zelle trans- BRIAN PAlADINo the account had fers, wire payments Chief, Lynbrook Police been compromised. and pre paid gift Department The cash was later cards when sus picked up from her pects posed as rephome by an resentatives of the Inter nal unknown suspect, according to Reveue Service, the FBI, major police reports. banks, telecommunications Lynbrook Police Chief Brian companies and even employers. Paladino said that the few cases Losses have ranged from a few of phone scams that result in hundred dollars to tens of thou- arrests often hinge on timing. sands. Investigations are most effecOne Lynbrook resident dis- tive, he explained, when scamcovered that a Verizon account mers arrange in-person conhad been opened fraudulently tact, such as sending a courier in his name and sent to debt or arranging a cash pickup, collections for $311, despite the which gives detectives an fact that he had never had serContinued on page 19
By AINSlEY MARTINEZ
amartinez@liherald.com
Sue Grieco/ Herald photos
Hello, winter East Rockaway Mayor Gordon Fox, second from left above, and village trustees greeted families at Winter Fest, including Michell and Ingrid Bedoya, at right, with Evangeline, Amelie, Miabella and Marselle. 2025-26 HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PREVIEW December 18, 2025
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t’s hard to prevent, other than just educating the seniors about it.