- Home |
- Residents |
- Business |
- Departments |
- City Government |
- e-Services |
Police Department
Crime Prevention Tips >
There isn't a week that passes where hard working citizens don’t get propositioned with some sort of clever scam. There are countless scams that are being pursued daily by ruthless criminals. Many of the scams include authentic looking checks that are sent to people claiming that they won thousands of dollars; however, they must pay the taxes on their winnings before cashing their check. These checks are fake and worthless, but because they look authentic people buy into the scams and send money to these thieves.
Scam artist are also trying to get your bank numbers, and many will call you and may have a great deal of information about you and or your family members. Don’t share your information with these callers even if they give you a phone number to call them back at. Once your bank account is cleaned out or you send a check to these individuals the money in all likelihood is lost. These cases are very difficult to investigate because many of the scammers are operating outside the country.
Additional scams include persons depicting themselves as grandchildren who need money to pay fines in effort to get out of jail, or to pay for the damage to the vehicle they hit. The scammers may have the correct names of your grandchild(ren) or may cleverly extract the information from you. Scammers will often request that you send a MoneyGram (this is very common and usually a strong indicator that this is a scam).
Two of the most recent scams I received are as follows:
- Mary reports receiving a phone call from Medicare (New York Office - ph. # 212-789-6543). During this phone call Mary was offered a free electric wheelchair if she gave the caller her name, address, DOB, and Medicare number. Mary handled this matter very well, she refused to give them any information about herself; she personally contacted her Medicare Company and inquired about the call she received. She was advised that there is no such program.
- Ellen reported to our department that a James Waver from FEMA (202-470-0949) called her and said she was entitled to a $ 27,000 federal grant as compensation for recent flooding damage she incurred. All Ellen had to do was give them her bank routing numbers and they would deposit the money in her savings account. Ellen was very wise and hung up on the caller. Had Ellen given the scammer her personal particular information and bank numbers her account could have been wiped out?Remove Graffiti
Many scammers are aware of current situations and emergency disasters in various regions of our country and play off of them. Please – if someone is asking you for money / bank account numbers or offering you something for nothing, in all likelihood you are a target of a scammer. Do not give them any information – if you are uncertain research the information yourself and call legitimate numbers from phone books or reliable sources – not from numbers the scammer gave you.
Some useful links:
