Lee County Sheriff’s Office hosts cybercrime seminar

Weak passwords, oversharing on social media and public Wi-Fi, those are some dangers internet users face online every day, and anybody can fall for it. However, seniors can be the most at risk of scammers who target users online.

That’s why Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies held its Cyber Theft Seminar at North Fort Myers Recreation Center Thursday to help senior citizens spot cybercrimes.

“They were doing a bank scam on me,” Linda Rohwer said.

Rohwer, a North Fort Myers resident, spent the morning at the seminar because of past negative experience due to cybercrime.

“Unfortunately, seniors are usually targeted for cyber fraud,” said Michelle Sargis, crime prevention specialist with LCSO.

Nearly all people in attendance for the seminar have been targeted by online scams.

Sargis said passing the information along to everyone in the community is vital.

The seminar also taught those in attendance better practices for surfing the web safely and recognizing spam in email.

“We’re trying to get them to understand that not every single website they click on is legitimate,” Sargis said.