From left are Golden K speaker Geno Basanese of the Michigan State Police with chairperson Judy Sielaff. (Candy Buchcuski photo)

By Candy Buchcuski

For The Daily News

KINGSFORD — On another beautiful fall day in the 40s, the Golden K gathered to hear speaker Trooper Geno Basanese from the Michigan State Police Iron Mountain Post address the problem of new scams.

The welcome song was sung for Basanese and Kendra Trulock.

A spirit of joy and thankfulness was felt as the group sang “Over the River and Through the Woods,” “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” “Piano Roll Blues” and “We Gather Together.” Songs were led by Lois Outcelt and pianist Alyce Derwinski.

The birthday song was sung for members Paul Larson and Charlie Yonts and the anniversary song for Laverne and Al Calcari.

Members were reminded to keep Kathy Jo Anderon’s husband, Joe, and Joanne Hady in their prayers.

Chair Judy Sielaff gave the thought for the day, “The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.”

The pot of gold was won by Sue Proudfit. Gary Proudfit lead the Happy Dollars. Sarah Gospodarek was grateful to celebrate another Thanksgiving with family and friends and the Golden K family. Gary reminded the group about the Jewish Star on the dollar bill added by George Washington in honor Lafayette, who helped fund the Revolutionary War. Bill Roberts was happy to be thankful.

The group received a thank you from Moving Mountains for their donation to the organization and for allowing them to be guest speakers.

The Golden K’s Christmas party will be on Dec. 15. Cost is $19 per person. Roberts noted that the Christmas Party for special needs children is set. Approval was given to purchase a beard for Santa.

Basanese first of all mentioned how proud he is of our community for their constant generosity but also cautioned how members all need to research the organizations they donated to in order to avoid being scammed. He said that the public is free to stop in any time with questions.

He explained that the newest scam is called check washing. A person writes a check that is never received by the business it’s written to. Through chemicals, scammer gets rid of the name or changes the amount on the check. It’s difficult to detect. He noted that most banks will help and see that the person’s money is returned, but it can take months.

Ways for the public to protect itself from this scam is to use indelible ink pens to make it harder to use chemicals; use heat sensitive checks; fill out all lines, making it hard to change; shredding unused checks; using digital pay; monitoring the legitimacy of the place where they are paying.

They should contact financial institute and police if they believe this has happened. They should also ask their financial institutions to alert them of any suspicious activity.

He also suggested they avoid sending cash in the mail. They should watch notifications for when packages are delivered, but shouldn’t click on fake notice emails.

Basanese also encouraged the group to get outdoor cameras to avoid package theft.

To avoid other scams, they shouldn’t answer unknown phone calls but should instead let them go to voicemail.

The group thanked him for this helpful information.

The Golden K meets at 10 a.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church in Kingsford.