When scammers reach out, reach out to the police
Staff writer
A recent scam email sent to Marion addresses threatening to release embarrassing video if the receiver fails to pay the email sender $950 is merely another of many scam efforts taking place every day, Marion police officer Kaylan Miles said Monday.
Fall for the scam or not fall for the scam, it’s never a bad idea to contact law enforcement about scam calls, emails, and letters, he said.
The first thing police will do is ask whether the receiver has responded to the scam attempt in any way.
“If you have, what kind of response did you send?” Miles said. “Make sure you haven’t sent out any information.”
Police will want to know whether a credit card number was given.
If a scam email comes and it has a link, “don’t click on it,” Miles said.
If a direct transaction from one bank to another was made, try to get a statement from the bank to find out where the money went.
Some scammers mail bogus checks, wanting the recipients to refund the “extra payment.”
Sometimes people do send scammers a check, and the recipient moves the money.
“It can move through several people,” Miles said. “Sometimes they do it because they are scared.”
Miles said older people were at much higher risk of falling for scams than younger people.
People age 55 and older are targeted more often.
Miles said the number of scam attempts remains fairly consistent.
“They usually have scam farms,” he said. “They will set up people to make phone calls. If they get someone to stay on the line, they try to scam them.”
Reading a scam email threatening to send out embarrassing videos if the recipient didn’t send money, Miles said the email was generic.
“There’s no mention of your name,” he said. “I can pull a dozen up right now.”
As for how scammers get information to send out scam attempts, Miles said it doesn’t take a lot to get personal information on the Internet.
One option for would-be victims is to send the scam attempt to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
If a scam email contains a bitcoin account number, FBI might be able to track down the sender / account owner.
“The list of scams I’ve gone through are constantly evolving and changing,” Miles said. “There was one recently that had to do with fake airline tickets.”
Miles said no one should be embarrassed to notify police of a scam attempt or of having been scammed.
“Here are two rules: If you see it and have no idea what they’re talking about, call us,” he said. “Two, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”
Police work in scam attempt cases is purely preventative, Miles said.
“We’d much rather spend 5 or 10 minutes talking to them than working a full case for them,” he said.
People also can report scams or attempted scams to a Federal Trade Commission tip line by calling (877) 382-4357.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Miles said. “Everybody falls for a scam once in a while.”