Sheriff's office renews warnings about "Phishing Scams"
6:31 p.m. Friday, April 20, 2007
The most common of these scams occur when someone receives a call from an individual portraying themselves as a jury coordinator informing the victim that they have missed jury duty and that a warrant will be issued for their arrest. When the victim stated that they never received any notice of the jury duty assignment the jury coordinator informs the victim that they need to verify the information to dismiss the warrant and the criminals will gather personal information like names, DOB’s, social security numbers, phone numbers, etc. Criminals will then use the information to open new accounts and new identities for criminal activities. Most individuals will not know that they are a victim of identity theft, until the collection agencies start calling, they apply for loans, or have their credit report checked.
A new twist that we are starting to see is close to the jury scam, but the criminals are now portraying themselves as collection agents.
The reported victim gets “cold called” by a collection company demanding money from an unpaid account. The victim tells the caller that they did not have that account. The caller tells the victim to go make a police report and fax it to them. The Collection Company tells them they will take care of the rest.
A concern with this issue is the information that is on police reports, name, DOB, Social Security, work addresses and phone numbers. When the victim faxes this information to the “Credit Agency”, they now have all the information needed for their criminal activities.
Citizens should be made aware that they should never provide personal information over the phone or by fax without knowing or confirming whom they are providing this information to. Individuals should always check their credit reports at least twice a year from a major credit agency to identify these crimes early.
We ask that citizens please report all these crimes to their local Law Enforcement Agency.
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