For Bonnie Pope, the red flags went up as soon as she noticed the call came from Jamaica.
The Green River resident received a phone call Thursday from a man claiming he was with Publishers Clearing House in Washington, D.C. The man told Pope the iconic prize van was en route to her house and would arrive in minutes. He told her she won $5,500 cash every day for the rest of her life and excitedly told her about the financial freedom she would enjoy in the future.
“He was really trying to hype me up and get me going,” Pope said.
After a few moments, the scammer tried to hook Pope into giving him money. He explained he had gotten a call from the IRS, which had stopped the prize van and demanded tax money on her winnings before the van could make its life-changing visit to the Popes’ residence. He said a $280 payment was needed to clear everything up and get the van back on the road to her home.
Instead of paying, Pope called the man out on his lies and hung up on him.
Similar calls are not unusual for many of Green River’s older residents. Scammers, based in foreign countries and who are very difficult to prosecute, target seniors with an ever-evolving collection of schemes designed to fool people into sending them money. Some focus on threats of legal action if the person doesn’t pay, others attempt to fool a person into thinking a grandchild has been jailed in a foreign country and needs legal help while some even attempt to convince their target of a computer problem that needs to be fixed remotely.
For the Popes, this wasn’t the first time they had gotten a scam call. Bonnie said her husband received a call from someone claiming they represented the IRS, demanding payment for alleged unpaid taxes and threatened a lawsuit if they didn’t pay.
“My husband said ‘We don’t have anything, go ahead and sue us,’ and hung up,” she said.
Calls complaining of attempted scams also are not unusual for the Green River Police Department. Every week, the department gets calls from people reporting scams, sometimes with the person reporting a monetary loss.
Burke Morin, a detective with the GRPD, said while phone scams are common in Green River, another prevalent scam circulating in the area involves buying and selling items online. In these scams, a person selling an item online might receive a check for more than the amount originally agreed upon.
When contacting the buyer, the seller is told to either cash the check and wire the overpaid amount back to the buyer or told to simply keep it. When the seller cashes the check, the check later turns out to be phony and the seller’s account is deducted the total amount of the check.
In Green River, Morin said there isn’t generally a peak time when more scams are being reported than usual, with reports coming in regularly.
“It’s pretty consistent,” Morin said.
While the number of scams reported doesn’t change, the types of scams utilized do, with attempts made to fool people into thinking they’ve missed jury duty and will be jailed if they don’t pay a fine or that they’ve won a European lottery and need to pay fees associated with releasing the prize money.
“There are so many ways to fraud people,” Morin said.
One major tip Morin has is to never disclose personal information over the phone and never agree to deposit a personal check and wire money back. Once a scammer has a person’s account number, they could quickly drain the account of funds and potentially use that information in further fraudulent activities.
Scammers can also make very convincing and emotional arguments that can convince their target to do what they want making it important to remain calm when being contacted about sudden fines and fees they’re told they have to pay.
“These guys and gals are really good... they can trip you up,” Morin said.
Morin said one of the key things to consider when being contacted for a potential scam is that if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. In regards to people claiming they’re with a government agency, Morin said most agencies won’t do business over the phone and will send a representative in person. Morin said people can hang up and call the agency the caller claimed to represent to see if the call is legitimate.
Another thing to be weary of is a constant insistence to pay money immediately. These kinds of demands typically involve scams as the scammers want to receive money as soon as possible.
“It’s all about money right now, money today,” Morin said.
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