Reports of Weston-area residents targeted by scammers have prompted the Weston Police Department to schedule a fraud-awareness seminar next month.
The seminar will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the West Platte High School Performing Arts Center. Police Chief Kelly Clark said the program will focus on scams targeting older adults and cryptocurrency payments.
Clark said the department has received multiple calls involving people throughout the Weston ZIP code, including residents outside the city limits. He did not have an exact number of reports or a total amount lost during the interview.
“We’ve had a lot,” Clark said. “One’s too many for me, but we’ve had more than one.”
A common scheme involves a caller claiming that a child, grandchild or other relative has been arrested and needs money for bail. The caller may demand cash or cryptocurrency and pressure the victim to act before contacting anyone else.
“None of us are ever going to ask for cash or cryptocurrency,” Clark said. “And we’re never going to ask you to go to another place to mail something to us, because that’s not the way we do business.”
Clark advised residents to hang up and contact the relative using a trusted number. They should also call the police agency independently rather than using a number provided by the caller.
Scammers can also use artificial intelligence to imitate a relative’s voice. The Federal Trade Commission warns that voice-cloning software can create a convincing imitation from a short audio clip posted online.
FBI data show older adults can face significant losses. Missourians age 60 and older filed 3,247 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 and reported approximately $91.6 million in losses.
The FBI also received 13,460 complaints nationwide involving cryptocurrency kiosks in 2025, with reported losses totaling $389 million. People age 60 and older accounted for more than $257 million of those losses.
Anyone who believes they sent money to a scammer should contact the bank or payment service involved, notify local law enforcement and file reports with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI at IC3.gov.
