Sullivan County Sheriff Warns of Scams
February 24, 2010 by The Catskill Chronicle
MONTICELLO – Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff warned citizens on Sunday of two scams currently being perpetrated in the county.
The first scam involves a telephone caller posing as a Direct TV salesman offering an upgrade in the satellite service. The caller offers a "special deal" for $9.95 to upgrade the number of channels the person receives. The caller then asks the victim for an ATM card number and the security code on the back, to complete the transaction.
"The con men are very crafty,” said the Sheriff. "We don’t know if they are working off a list of Direct TV subscribers or if they are calling randomly until they find someone who has the service.”
In the one case the Sheriff’s Office investigated in the Town of Liberty, the con artist conducted the entire scam in the Spanish language, and wiped out the victim’s bank account within several hours.
"Once you have established an account, Direct TV will always bill you. They will not be looking for an ATM card number over the telephone,” said the Sheriff.
In the second scam, a telephone caller with a heavy Indian accent called a woman in White Lake and advised her that she had received a $7,000 stimulus grant from the US government. All she had to do was send a $200 processing fee via Western Union, to the company handling the grant. The company was located in New Delhi, India. When the woman questioned why the US government was using a company in India to distribute stimulus grants, she was quickly told by the caller, "What is the matter, haven’t you heard of outsourcing?" The women quickly notified Sheriff’s Detectives who investigated the scam.
"These scam artists are using a telephone forwarding system to hide their identity and location," said Sheriff Mike Schiff. "When you call their telephone number which is located in California, the phone ring 3 times, pauses, and then gets redirected to another number overseas. These telephone numbers often get disconnected within a few days,” said the Sheriff.
As for Western Union, Schiff cautioned citizens about using this service. "Western Union, Moneygram and similar companies are great for sending money to relatives or friends in an emergency, when they can’t wait for a check in the mail. If someone wants you to "wire" money to pay a fee for funds they will send you later, or as part of a work at home program, a red flag should go up immediately,” said the Sheriff. "The scamsters love to use money telegram systems because they typically have the victim wire the funds to a large city. The scammers can then retrieve the money from any one of several hundred telegram agents within that geographic area. Even if you were to catch it in time, it would be very difficult to have the police on the other end watch every single location,” said Schiff.
Anyone who may have been a victim of these scams are urged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 845-794-7100.
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Sullivan County Sheriff Warns of Scams
February 24, 2010 by The Catskill Chronicle
MONTICELLO – Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff warned citizens on Sunday of two scams currently being perpetrated in the county.
The first scam involves a telephone caller posing as a Direct TV salesman offering an upgrade in the satellite service. The caller offers a "special deal" for $9.95 to upgrade the number of channels the person receives. The caller then asks the victim for an ATM card number and the security code on the back, to complete the transaction.
"The con men are very crafty,” said the Sheriff. "We don’t know if they are working off a list of Direct TV subscribers or if they are calling randomly until they find someone who has the service.”
In the one case the Sheriff’s Office investigated in the Town of Liberty, the con artist conducted the entire scam in the Spanish language, and wiped out the victim’s bank account within several hours.
"Once you have established an account, Direct TV will always bill you. They will not be looking for an ATM card number over the telephone,” said the Sheriff.
In the second scam, a telephone caller with a heavy Indian accent called a woman in White Lake and advised her that she had received a $7,000 stimulus grant from the US government. All she had to do was send a $200 processing fee via Western Union, to the company handling the grant. The company was located in New Delhi, India. When the woman questioned why the US government was using a company in India to distribute stimulus grants, she was quickly told by the caller, "What is the matter, haven’t you heard of outsourcing?" The women quickly notified Sheriff’s Detectives who investigated the scam.
"These scam artists are using a telephone forwarding system to hide their identity and location," said Sheriff Mike Schiff. "When you call their telephone number which is located in California, the phone ring 3 times, pauses, and then gets redirected to another number overseas. These telephone numbers often get disconnected within a few days,” said the Sheriff.
As for Western Union, Schiff cautioned citizens about using this service. "Western Union, Moneygram and similar companies are great for sending money to relatives or friends in an emergency, when they can’t wait for a check in the mail. If someone wants you to "wire" money to pay a fee for funds they will send you later, or as part of a work at home program, a red flag should go up immediately,” said the Sheriff. "The scamsters love to use money telegram systems because they typically have the victim wire the funds to a large city. The scammers can then retrieve the money from any one of several hundred telegram agents within that geographic area. Even if you were to catch it in time, it would be very difficult to have the police on the other end watch every single location,” said Schiff.
Anyone who may have been a victim of these scams are urged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 845-794-7100.
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