Although scammers conduct their shady business all year round, they really begin to hit hard during the holiday season.
Whether through emails or phone calls, scammers will find a way to get ahold of you and try to con you into giving them money through threats of incarceration, debt collection, or whatever other sordid story they can come up with. Some will play as IRS officials or even police officers, as was the case when our own publisher here at the Pampa News received a call on our office phone.
“I got a phone call from what genuinely sounded like a police officer,” she said. “They called here at the newspaper and asked for Miss Woods. They didn’t say my first name. At first I thought he was asking for an employee because the connection wasn’t too good.”
The scammer then mentioned her daughter’s name and the month and year of a birthday. After he was informed that she didn’t live here, he mentioned her other daughter’s name who is still in high school. When she told him there was no way that this had anything to do with her daughters, he immediately told her it was actually for her. That was the first red flag.
“He said, you were supposed to be at federal jury duty and you missed it, so we’re going to arrest you and you’ll have to stay in jail for 72 hours. I told him, why don’t you just come down here to the newspaper? They apparently knew me. He said, no if you can’t take care of this, then we will dispatch an officer to your home. I just told him to send someone here to the paper because I was right here. He gets irritated with me and says, fine we will dispatch an officer to you to arrest you.”
“I usually can catch onto a scam, but this one really did sound real. Here are some flags: he said his name was Lieutenant Smith and I didn’t think we had a Lieutenant Smith so that was weird and the number that came across wasn’t Gray County Sheriff’s Office, it was a Borger number. But he sounded so aggressive and so real.”
She hangs up and reaches out to Constable Jason Rushing and tells him what had just happened. Rushing comes down to the office where they both call the number back, Rushing staying quiet and listening to the conversation.
“We called the guy back and I asked him to explain what he was saying. He said, we need you to pay a fine or we’re going to come arrest you, and he was even more aggressive this time. So he was trying to get money out of me. Well this is when Jason said, this is Constable Rushing with the Gray County Sheriff’s Office, and the guy realized he had been had and said some profanities to Jason and hung up. Come to find out, this is happening all the time. Either they’re going to say it’s the IRS that needs money or for jury duty or they’re going to come up with a reason. And they do sound legitimate. If it’s real, they’re never, ever going to ask you to pay with gift cards or a payment over the phone.”
“They have done this before and they are actually getting money out of people. The longer they keep you on the phone, they’ll send you an email and make it look even more legitimate.”
Scammers will go to great lengths to find information on an individual before reaching out, and sometimes it’s only just a couple of names and a place of employment that will convince folks that the threats they are receiving are indeed real. The fact that this particular caller knew the names of her daughters is unsettling to say the least.
“There’s websites where they’re (scammers) are getting all this information before they call. So they never found my personal cell phone, they just found out that I work here at The Pampa News.”
This is the first scam call that Mrs. Woods has received that made her second guess, so she gives a word of caution to anyone who may potentially find themselves in the same situation.
“If it seems like it’s not real, hang up with them and call the sheriff’s office and let them know that someone is trying to get money out of you over the phone. This is honestly the first one that I almost believed was real.”
Deputy Brown at the sheriff’s office says that these scammers use fear and intimidation and it’s easy for people to fall victim to their schemes. Unfortunately, there have been many folks who have given away their money to these con artists and once they realize what’s going on, there’s nothing that can be done. They are unable to get their money back and the phone numbers and emails that these people use are not traceable, allowing them to move on to their victim.
Sometimes it’s easier to tell if an email doesn’t seem right just by the wording and general knowledge of the court system. Phone calls are a bit harder to distinguish, but red flags are certainly bound to show early on in the conversation, such as asking for payment of money or gift cards over the phone.
Just be vigilant and if something just doesn’t seem right, contact your local law enforcement and do not, under any circumstances, give out any personal information such as social security number, date of birth, credit or debit card numbers and do not send money if you have no idea exactly where or who it’s going to.
