SCAMS Continue in Our Area
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office continues to receive reports of scammers trying to lie, intimidate, and threaten people into giving up their hard-earned money or personal information, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft.
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve received reports of the Jury Scam, the IRS Scam and the Microsoft Computer Virus Scam. All of these scams have the same basic premise: a despicable thief threatens/scares an unsuspecting victim as they portray themselves as the “person who just want to help”. Once they have the victim scared, they:
a) convince them to purchase prepaid credit cards, iTunes Cards, or similar items from a local store and provide the card access numbers to the thief; which allows them to steal the money,
b) convince them to grant remote access to the victim’s computer or to provide personal information (social security numbers, banking numbers, etc.) setting the victim up for identity theft and
fraud.
Do NOT, for any reason, provide any personal or banking information over the phone to anyone you don’t know and trust 100% unless you instigated the call for your own reasons. Law Enforcement, Government or reputable businesses will NOT call and threaten/coerce you into buying prepaid credit cards, providing remote access to computers, or providing personal/banking information.
If for some reason you “think” it might be a legitimate call, take the time to check out the information on your own. Do NOT use the phone numbers or contact information the person on the phone is providing; look the information up yourself and make contact with known, published numbers. Do NOT give in to their threats and intimidation to make you do it “right now or else”.
We, law enforcement (IRS, ANY Sheriff’s Office, Police Department or State Patrol) will NEVER call and threaten your arrest “unless you pay us right now.” If you get a call like this, it’s a SCAM! Hang up and report the phone call to Crime Check at 509-456-2233.
No reputable computer company will ever call you and request remote access to your computer and home internet system. If you receive a call like this, it’s a SCAM! Hang up and report the phone call to Crime Check at 509-456-2233. If you happen to be having computer problems but haven’t contacted a company yet, take the caller’s information, hang up and call the company at the phone numbers YOU looked up and verify it’s not a scam. Once you give remote access to your computer, a scammer can download your personal information stored on that computer (tax records, banking information, important identification numbers etc.).
Don’t be victimized by these predatory criminals. Check their stories out. Understand once you give this type of information or access to ANYONE, you are taking a huge risk with your money and identity.