Don’t let the bad guys trick you out of your money | Nvdaily

Your cell phone rings and you go out. A sense of fear mounts as you hear the caller saying they are from the sheriff’s office, telling you that you missed the jury duty and that you have a warrant for arrest.

You’re in a panic because you don’t think this could happen to you. The caller is convinced. He tells you that to solve the problem, you can pay the $ 500 fine by sending money via wire transfer or by buying multiple gift cards and sending them to a designated location.

This is just one of several scams that thieves use to convince you to give them your money. During a recent interview, Sgt. Terry Fritts of the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said that such scams create a difficult situation for all concerned.

“It is difficult for us to investigate at all,” he said. “We pick up the ball and run with it as far as we can. However, we often run into a dead end when we find that the bad guys have been using all of these different VPNs [virtual private networks] bounce off and we don’t know where the bad guy is from.

“And when we finally tracked them down, we would normally find that these people aren’t even in the United States, and our hands are tied because once it becomes an international incident, when it doesn’t reach a certain threshold . “Money, then the Feds won’t even look at it. Now you can report it to the FBI, you can report it to the Attorney General, and you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission, and all of those agencies will overturn it and review it, but it may not qualify for a charge. “

Gift card fraud is the most common way scammers steal money from consumers. As of 2018, $ 245 million has been donated to scammers via gift cards, the FTC reports on its website ftc.gov.

“Vouchers are intended for gifts, not payments. But they are popular with scammers because they are easy for people to find and buy, and they offer less protection for buyers compared to some other payment options. They’re more like cash: as soon as you use the card, the money on it is gone. Scammers like this, ”says the FTC website at www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/gift-card-scams. “No real business or government agency will ever insist that you pay them with a gift card. Anyone who asks to be paid with a gift card is a scam. “

An FTC press release posted in February found that the FTC had 2.2 million fraud reports and consumers lost $ 3.3 billion to fraud in 2020.

A local resident, DEB, in Frederick County (her name is not used to protect her identity) received a call in May from a man who said her Amazon credit card had been compromised and he needed her help finding the thief . He told her to buy three Target gift cards valued at $ 500 – a total of $ 1,500. He was so persuasive that she went out and bought the tickets. He stayed on the phone during this time, and when she had the cards he asked her for the PIN numbers.

DEB said she realized she had been caught a few hours later and called the police.

“I filled out the fraud report and she (the substitute) told me there was nothing else she could do,” DEB said in a telephone interview.

While on the phone with the scammer, she said she was concerned that someone might put a “huge bill” on her credit card.

“I try not to have more than $ 6,000 on a credit card, mostly for this reason,” she said.

So far, their efforts to get the lost money back have not come very far. Her bank told her it couldn’t help because it gave the scammer the information he needed to steal her money.

Internet fraud is also popular with fraudsters. According to Cpl. Brian South.

“Or emails claiming to be Apple, for example asking for personal information like social security numbers,” said an email from South.

He says his department has seen reports of gift card fraud “where someone is asked to buy a series of gift cards to pay bail for a family member, or because they have an arrest warrant or lack of electricity or water” . shortly before shutdown. “

He notes that other reported scams include the award scam, where someone is informed that they have won a prize but must pay a certain amount to receive the prize, and the secret shopper scam, where a person is a check sent in cash will keep part of it and will be asked to send a money gram to “rate” your customer experience. “You’ll find out later that the check was bad.”

Fritts said his department has also received reports of internet fraud.

You are receiving this junk email, he said, which alerts you to suspicious activity on your account. To contest the allegation, the email would “click here”.

“It’s just a fake email that takes you to a website that a bad guy created that looks like an Amazon account or a financial institution,” he said, adding that you want to enter your credentials for them Steal your login and then pretend you are.

If it’s a financial institution, scammers can steal your money via wire transfer because they have your credentials. Or, if you have your Amazon account information, “just place a series of orders and have the orders shipped to where you want”.

These crooks are difficult to catch, so many local, state, and federal agencies and companies have set up public education programs.

“Education is by far the best,” said Fritts, noting that police representatives from the area discussed fraud and fraud with senior citizens attending TRIAD conferences. TRIAD is a program that brings together law enforcement agencies, community organizations, and seniors to share information about crime prevention and education. Fritts works with the TRIAD in Warren County and previously worked with the Top of Virginia TRIAD.

Fritts offered these tips to help avoid scams.

“If someone calls you or contacts you and asks you for information, if it’s a legitimate company, they already have it so you don’t have to confirm, you don’t have to have your birthday, address, social (security) number ), Driver’s license or financial information, ”he said. “And when someone calls you, just hang up. If it’s a legitimate company, call the legitimate company’s phone number and say, “I just got a call from someone at Amazon or this bank and they claim to be that bank. Did you just call me?” If it was real they’ll tell you, “hey, there was a problem with your account” when you call them. Never give anything out for something that you are contacted about. “

Sgt.Whitney Mauck of the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office stated in an email that her department has received reports of gift card fraud, as well as home improvement, telephone marketing, internet fraud and tax identification theft fraud. To avoid fraud, she advises residents to put their phone number in the National Do Not Call Registry and not to send payments without reading contracts.

“Never buy over the phone unless you initiated the call. Never confirm bank details / information to unknown companies, only open email attachments from known senders, ”she says.

Some ways to detect fraud include threats of arrest or legal action if payments are not made, spelling and grammatical errors, and requests to pay by gift card or prepaid card, cash, or wire transfer.

“A scammer won’t answer questions or ask why you want to know the information. Or they will vehemently refuse to give it to you. Ask for the name, company, company address, etc., ”she says.

SUBMIT A REPORT

Anyone who loses money to a fraud is encouraged to report it to the authorities. Fritz said this will help the police get the scam public for others to know about. Reports can also be filed with the FBI, FTC, and the Virginia Attorney General:

Federal Trade Commission

• Telephone: 1-877-FTC-HELP

• Online: MeldeFraud.ftc.gov

• Post: Federal Trade Commission, CRC-240, Washington, DC 20580

• Fraud Alerts: www.consumer.ftc.gov/scam-alerts

• FTC do not call the registry: www.donotcall.gov

Register by phone – call from the number you wish to register: Toll Free: 1-866-290-4236

Duty Free: 1-888-382-1222TTY

FBI

• Inform and report fraud: www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety

Virginia Attorney General

• Online: www.oag.state.va.us/consumer-protection

• Telephone: Consumer protection hotline, 800-552-9963

• More information on fraud: www.oag.state.va.us/consumer-protection/index.php/scams-information