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A phone scam

Status: Closed
Assigned To: jallen (Police)
Ticket ID: 2541541b

I received a phone call at 11:30 this morning.
"Hello Granma"
This was a fellow who said he was in trouble, (He didn't sound like my grandson)
He said that he had strep throat. He was with some one who got picked up by the police, and he was now trying to be cleared as an accomplice,.
He wanted to be released by tonight, and he needed a $2000 bond. He supposedly put a detective online but that person was very mysterious.
I said I wasn't well enough to deliver the money. They hung up.
I am very upset.

Ticket History

Public
Closed
Updated By: jallen
Assigned To: jallen (Police)

Dear Arlene, good move giving them an excuse not to participate in their scam. If you get such a phone call in the future just feel free to hang up on them - they'll move on to the next person, hoping to scam them instead, since you didn't fall for it.

This scam is well known, and has been happening for some years now - every now and then it swings back around to our neck of the woods. Sometimes the scammers are calling from outside the US, but they have ways to "spoof" their actual phone number so it shows up on your Caller ID screen any way they want it to.

A similar scam is  routinely happening involving scammers trying to intimidate folks to send money to the "IRS" or trying to convince people that they have a warrant for their arrest and they better give their credit card info before they get arrested.

If the call is made to sound urgent - that immediate action must be taken or something awful will happen to you or someone else, you can be certain it is a scam. Hang up. Don't worry about offending them - like I said, they'll just move on to an easier target than you.

Again - good job on being aware of thieves like this and getting off the phone quickly. Never give out any personal information and never send money or a credit card.  ~Lt. Allen, GFPD

06/02/2017 - 4:55pm
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Citizen request/question created.

06/02/2017 - 12:57pm

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