Categories
Home - Front Page What's Happening

Beware of Scams

The Mechanicsburg Police Department has been made aware of two different scams that have been received by residents. The first resident received a phone call from someone that was posing to be a family member. They advised that they had been arrested in another country and needed to have money sent to pay for their release. The resident did not believe what was being told to them and hung up. In an instance like this, the best thing to do is try to get a phone number to return their call. Check with your family and ensure that the person is even out of the county. In most cases, you will know ahead of time in you have a close family member that is going to be out of the country. Many of these calls are made to elderly individuals and the person will pose to be a grandchild of theirs. Again, please research and investigate prior to ever sending any money.

The second incident was a phone call that was received by the resident. The resident was told that the caller was from Amazon and that the resident had been charged too much on a transaction. The caller advised they were going to refund the resident the difference of the overcharge. While completing the transaction, the resident was informed the caller credited back too much money and was now going to be fired for the mistake. The caller asked the resident to fill out a form, which was emailed to the resident. The form asked for bank account information which the resident provided. The resident was also asked to purchase gift cards and supply the back of the information on the gift cards to the caller, which the resident did. The resident later discovered a large amount of money had been withdrawn from their bank account.

The police department is putting this information out so that residents can be warned of scams like these. There are a multitude of scams that are out there. You should be wary if ever asked to purchase gift cards and investigate to ensure calls received are legit prior to ever providing bank account information, credit card information or personally identifying information, to anyone. More information about scams and tips about scams can be found on the police department website or found by clicking the link – http://mechanicsburgpolice.org/common-scams/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *