Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By TOM LAVENTURE
BESSEMER — Awareness has improved but people are still victimized by scammers that change and adapt with new technology to stay ahead of prevention efforts, according to local law enforcement.
“The scam complaints are a fraction of the daily load but they are increasing every day,” said Sgt. Jay Kangas, with the Gogebic County Sheriff’s Department. “They are picking up slowly.”
Recent scam complaints include the fake IRS calls, where someone threatens negative action including arrest or lawsuits in an attempt to extort money over the phone, he said. Other complaints are about callers claiming to be relations or someone speaking for a loved one they know and ask for money to get them out of jail or some other bad situation.
A caller on June 12 reported that someone claiming to be an attorney had called asking for $9,800, claiming it was to resolve a case involving a friend of hers, Kangas said.
“She went to get the money and was going to send it to him,” Kangas said. “But, fortunately, UPS had already left for the day.”
Kangas urged the woman not to send the money and recommended trying to contact the friend who was supposably in trouble. Chances are the person will reply that there is nothing wrong, he said.
“This has to be playing with their emotions,” Kangas said.
There is so much personal information on social media today that unscrupulous people can put together a scam that uses someone’s personal contacts or posts, he said. It is a way to generate enough concern to outweigh any skepticism of the authenticity of the call to get money or access to accounts, he said.
“Just be wary of everybody,” Kangas said. “Don’t give any financial information, personal information, banking information or anything like that (to unsolicited contacts).”
Some scamming outfits have already acquired the account information and credit card numbers of the people they are calling through fraudulent and sometimes even legal means. The caller is just trying to get that last bit of missing information to access the account — the three-digit security code, he said.
“(Scam artists) are getting people by saying they are their credit card company checking on a potentially fraudulent charge,” he said. “They say they need the three-digit security code printed on the back of the credit card to verify it. Don’t give any of that information out either.”
Banks and credit unions often have a fraud detection company that will call when an irregular activity occurs, such as a sudden string of purchases or a unexplained purchase in another state.
“I was in the Twin Cities making a purchase when I got a call to determine if I was the rightful card owner,” Kangas said. “But even they didn’t ask for any personal information.”
It’s a good idea to notify the financial institutions when planning to travel and using their cards, he said.
When someone does provide personal information or sends money to a scammer, there is not a lot that can be done at that point, Kangas said. Law enforcement will take the information and phone numbers and attempt to contact them but most often the callers are untraceable.
“I don’t know how you’d ever track them down,” Kangas said.
Other complaints are noting that telemarketers from out of the area now use technology to show a call appearing to come from the same area code. This is intended to get more people to answer the call than would if the number were unrecognizable.
Scammers use similar technology, Kangas said. There have been scam calls to the sheriff’s department that show up as coming from the sheriff’s department, he said.
Deputy Amanda Drier, of the Iron County Sheriff’s Office, said there have been a few area residents who have called to complain about scam calls recently.
“We deal with it by telling them not to give any personal information over the phone,” Drier said.
If an unsolicited caller asks for personal information the only response should be to ask for a call back number, she said. Report that number along with the nature of the call to the sheriff’s office, she said.
