InTucker Magazine

On the Beat with Lt. Obester

If you are reading this article, I need you to immediately send me your bank account information. Your finances have been analyzed and it was discovered that you have an excessive amount of money in your bank. Please send me your account number, password, and location of your bank right away! If you do not provide this information, a warrant will be drawn up for your arrest. If you want to avoid going to jail, you can go to any Walmart, Target, or my personal favorite, Costco, and purchase gift cards with all your excess money.

Does this sound ridiculous to you? Sadly, a good number of individuals – including smart people like you – are falling for this type of scam. These scams often start off with a telephone call from someone claiming to be an official with the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the FBI, and even state and local law enforcement agencies. The scam callers start off polite but assertive – stating that you have failed to pay your taxes, failed to answer a jury summons, or perhaps failed to pay your power bill. While the variations of these pretextual calls are too numerous to list, most of these scam calls have one thing in common – the need to send money to the caller or a third party as soon as possible.

Oftentimes, the calls come with a threat of some type. If you don’t provide your financial information or a gift card number immediately, the caller threatens to have your electricity shut off or worse, have you arrested and thrown in jail. These criminal scammers, which is what they are, are good at convincing individuals that the reason they are calling is legitimate and extremely urgent. However, when questioned, these callers will refuse to send you any written documentation or provide any credible proof of who they are or the “agency” they are representing.

Perhaps you have received a different type of call, one that begins with the news that you have won the “lottery” or some type of cash prize. The caller, polite but authoritative, tells you that he or she will help you get your fortune if you immediately go to a local store and purchase gift cards for them or provide the caller with your banking information. Just recently, I was flagged down by “Jim” as I was patrolling his neighborhood. Jim – aged 91 – asked if I would meet him nearby and on standby as he delivered some gift cards to an individual he had met over the phone. According to Jim, the individual had contacted him a few weeks prior letting him know that he had won a great amount of money. Sadly, Jim had already purchased thousands of dollars in gift cards and provided the card numbers to the scammer. Later that morning, I called the scammer and introduced myself. After I began asking a few questions, the scammer said something about my mother (may she rest in peace!) and hung up.

What can you do to avoid these scams? First, add your name to the Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov). Second, educate yourself about the various types of telephone scams that are out there. There are many websites that offer great advice on how to recognize and avoid these scammers (www.consumer.georgia.gov and www.ftc.gov). A simple internet search on “scam calls” can also be helpful. I particularly liked this article on the Georgia Attorney General’s website: “Carr Warns of Bogus Spoofed Phone Calls from Scammers Posing as Law Enforcement Officials”.

In the end, I am a genuine law enforcement officer, I would never ask for your bank account number, direct payment for a traffic ticket or any other type of renumeration on-the-spot, nor would I ever threaten to take you to jail if you didn’t immediately pay a fine. Please be very careful when giving out your financial or other personal information, especially over the telephone. If you have a senior citizen in your family, also remind them of the dangers that are out there. Finally, if you are still feeling charitable after reading this article, come join us for coffee at one of the various restaurants around the city…

With the holidays approaching, most of us want to end the year helping those people and organizations that are important to us. If you get contacted by an organization that claims to be supporting “law enforcement”, the “fire department”, or “public safety”, be curious and ask the caller questions such as “How much of the money you raise goes directly to helping the police officers/fire personnel, etc.”? Before you give to these organizations, please also do your research. Websites such as the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) and Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org) can be very helpful in determining whether these are legitimate organizations. Happy Holidays!