Presenting to a live group after months of pandemic distancing

By Monica Steinisch

After nearly two years of conducting only virtual trainings and presentations due to the pandemic, Consumer Action’s Outreach staff has been eager for the day they could add in-person events back into their calendar. A first foray came in October for Community Outreach Manager Jamie Woo, who gave a presentation to Chinese-speaking seniors living at San Francisco’s 257-unit Silvercrest Residence, an affordable apartment community managed by the Salvation Army.

With so many pandemic-related scams being perpetrated—many of them targeting seniors—Woo focused her presentation on recognizing the tell-tale signs of a scam (things like an urgent demand, a request for personal information, or a demand for payment in gift cards or other untraceable, irreversible payment methods) and knowing how to avoid becoming a scam victim (like hanging up the phone, not clicking on links in texts and emails, and walking away from a deal that’s too good to be true).

Community Outreach Manager Jamie Woo talks to Chinese-speaking seniors at Salvation Army’s Silvercrest Residence, in San Francisco, about scams.

During the presentation, many of the approximately 40 participants chimed in, revealing scams they had encountered or that they had heard about from friends and neighbors. These scams ranged from offers of a free or “$1” iPad or iPhone (in exchange for your personal information and/or a credit card number to cover “shipping”) to the sale of vitamins promising to turn your gray hair to black. Woo, who handles many of the Chinese-language messages that come in to Consumer Action’s complaint hotline had, sadly, heard of many of them before.

This was not Woo’s first time at the residence; the Salvation Army has invited her to present there before. In addition to her expertise in providing culturally sensitive education on a wide range of personal finance and consumer protection topics, her ability to speak two Chinese dialects—Cantonese and Mandarin—means she can engage a greater number of Silvercrest residents than if she could present in only one dialect.

“Despite the challenges of communicating with all of us wearing masks, doing the presentation in person was definitely worth the effort,” said Woo. “It gave people a chance to share firsthand accounts of scams and scam attempts—stories that are likely to stick with listeners and help them avoid scams themselves—and, having been isolated for most of 2020 and much of 2021, it was clear that the residents were happy to be together again—even to learn about such a serious topic!”

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