Melanie Henry

As a part of AARP’s initiative to support family caregivers who help make it possible for older Americans and other loved ones to live independently at home, AARP Oklahoma will host a celebration of caregivers with its #IHeartCaregivers Week events. The events will take place June 24-28 at Tulsa’s Guthrie Green, 111 East M.B. Brady Street.

AARP Oklahoma applauds today’s announcement of a historic $64 million rate reduction settlement agreement which will result in lower utility bills for OG&E customers beginning in July.

The summer months are prime time for home repair scams. The general ruse involves someone coming to your door and offering to do work on your home, typically at a big discount. While not all door-to-door offers are scams, some are. Do your research if an offer seems too good to be true. We’ve heard from victims who’ve lost thousands of dollars to unscrupulous contractors and outright scammers.

When a person is victimized by a scam, the victim is often portrayed as “falling for” something. This misses the part of the story of how skilled these criminals are at moving us to an emotional state, where our logical thinking takes a backseat. It also neglects how sophisticated many of these scams are.

There are plenty of reputable contests and sweepstakes out there (including some from AARP), and let’s be honest, winning feels great! However, there are questionable characters out there who are trying to hook you on winning to reel in the profits for themselves.

With the tech support scam, you get an online popup or a call from a well-known tech company (like Microsoft or Apple) that a virus has been identified on your computer. The scammer convinces you that he can fix the problem for a fee. Victims who catch on and stop payment are now getting hit with an associated scam.

AARP OK, REI Oklahoma and the Small Business Administration are hosting a Facebook Live Encore Entrepreneur event on Friday, May 4 at 10:30am.

A law passed in 2015 requires Medicare to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. Beneficiaries will begin to receive their new cards in May, and the rollout will continue into 2019. This is a good move, since Social Security numbers are the key to identity theft, and having them displayed on Medicare cards has long presented risk. Unfortunately, scammers have come up with ways to take advantage of this change.

What’s the best way to learn how a scam works and how you can protect yourself? Go to the source.

AARP Oklahoma is accepting nominations for its 10 th annual Indian Elder Honors, celebrating 50 Native American elders who have positively impacted their communities, families, and tribal nations. Since its inception in 2009, AARP Oklahoma has recognized 450 elders from all 39 tribal nations in Oklahoma.