Tag: Phone scams

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Ridgewood : Is Grandma being scammed?

phone-scam

November 18th 2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Do you have any relatives over age 65? Have they been warned about the grandma scam?

Here’s how the grandma scam works: A call from a younger person is made to the targeted older person, often at night, after the aging person is asleep. Half awake, grandma answers the phone and the scammer claims to be the grandchild who says he’s in trouble and he needs financial help. Grandma is concerned and wires cash to the scammer. It often times takes days until she realizes she has been scammed.

What’s the takeaway: Your relatives can be easily tricked under the right circumstances. Wanting a call from grandkids is the starting point for scammers and they are triggered by an emotional response to the plea for help.

Millions of dollars are lost this way, in smaller amounts at a time. One way to combat the scam is to be prepared to ask the caller a question only a real grandchild would know: the name of a pet, a parent’s birth date or a nickname.

That’s where Carolyn Rosenblatt, a registered nurse and elder law attorney, and Dr. Mikol Davis, a geriatric psychologist, come in. Rosenblatt and Davis, co-authors of The Family Guide to Aging Parents: Answers to Your Legal, Financial, and Healthcare Questions (www.agingparents.com) and Succeed with Senior Clients: A Financial Advisor’s Guide to Best Practices (www.aginginvestor.com), can provide comments for articles you are working on or write exclusive articles on this topic for your publication.

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Utilities Unite Against Scams

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PSE&G teams with more than 80 North American utilities to stop scams

November 15th 2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, more than 3 million consumers filed fraud complaints last year.  Phone scams are among the most common complaints. To combat these con artists, Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey’s largest utility, joined forces with more than 80 energy companies across North America to educate people how to spot a scam. The collaborative designated the third Wednesday in November

“Utilities United Against Scams Day.”

How the most common payment scam works:

  • Someone pretending to be a utility employee calls and threatens shut-off within an hour if they do not receive immediate payment via a prepaid card.
  • Victims are given a phony phone number to call back after they purchase the cards from a retail store.
  • When the customer calls back, they may hear voice response prompts that mimic those they would hear when calling a real customer service line. Some of these criminals use caller ID spoofing technology to replicate PSE&G’s number.
  • A fake representative asks for the numbers on the prepaid card or receipt. Within seconds the money is gone.

Scam red flags:

  • The caller becomes angry and aggressive, telling the customer his or her account is past due and service will be disconnected if a large payment isn’t made – often within less than an hour.
  •  The thief specifically demands the customer pay with a prepaid card or wire transfer.

“If a caller directs you to go to a local store to purchase a prepaid card to pay your bill, it is likely a scam,” said Greg Dunlap, PSE&G vice president of customer operations. “If you receive a call and are in doubt, hang up and call us at the phone number listed on our website or your PSE&G bill.”

The only way to protect against these scams is for customers to be cautious. Before terminating service, PSE&G alerts customers in a number of ways: messages on their bill, letters and phone calls. While the utility accepts credit cards, prepaid cards and money transfers to pay bills, PSE&G would never demand a specific type of payment and threaten immediate service termination.

“Hiding behind an untraceable phone, scammers know it is doubtful they’ll be caught,” said Dunlap. “By educating people how to spot a scam, our Utilities United collaborative aims to spare many would-be victims and make the thieves’ underhanded jobs a lot harder.”

Report all scam attempts by calling your utility and local police department, and file a complaint with the FTC at www.ftc.gov/complaint.

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The Ridgewood Police Report a Number of “phone scams” in Recent Weeks

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The Ridgewood Police Report a Number of “phone scams” in Recent Weeks 

Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Police Department has experienced a number of “phone scam” reports from residents over the past several weeks. Below are some examples of phone scams that have been recently reported by several residents.

Scammer(s) have been placing calls and have even left voice messages stating that they are from a government law enforcement agency. The IRS has been popular recently, however scammers will sometimes us a name of an agency that is fake, for example: “National Bureau of Crime”. The scammer will advise the person that criminal complaints have been signed against them or a family member and unless they give money or personal identifying information, charges will be “filed”. They may also claim that you owe “back taxes” or some form of payment is required. This scam is not aimed at the elderly and anyone can be a victim of this. Please understand that no legitimate law enforcement agency will EVER contact you this way.

Another past phone scams, scammers(s) have used the “Grandparent Scam”. This often involves a person who calls posing as a family member in trouble. He or she places a call to an older person and when they pick up, the scammer will say something along the lines of: “Hi Grandma, do you know who this is?” When the unsuspecting grandparent guesses the name of the grandchild the scammer most sounds like, the scammer has established a fake identity without having done any background research. The fake grandchild will usually ask for money to solve some unexpected problem (arrested and need bail money, overdue rent, payment for car repairs, etc.), to be paid via Western Union or MoneyGram, which don’t always require identification to collect. At the same time, the scam artist will beg the grandparent “please don’t tell my parents, they would kill me.” The fake grandchild will generally say they are in another state and may even say they are in another country on “vacation”.

The Ridgewood Police asks that you spread the word about these scams to your friends and family (especially the elderly). Please remember to always be cautious when providing any personal identifying information to strangers over the phone and/or internet.

For more information on phone scams and ways to protect yourself please visit the following links:

https://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud

https://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Reiterates-Warning-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam

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Phone scams getting more common, complex in North Jersey

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Phone scams getting more common, complex in North Jersey

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014, 11:43 PM    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014, 11:57 PM
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF AND ANDREW WYRICH
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

Police in North Jersey say at least four people were targets in the past 10 days of a so-called virtual kidnapping scam that federal authorities say has its roots in Mexico and has been a growing problem in Texas even as other scams have been spreading across the nation.

Typical scams

E-ZPASS: Someone sends an email purporting to be from E-ZPass saying you failed to pay a toll and provides a link to an invoice where you are told you can make payment. The Better Business Bureau warns that clicking on the link could unleash a virus on your computer that will steal your personal information. Authorities say that E-ZPass never sends such notifications by email.
IRS: Someone claiming to be from the IRS calls and says you owe unpaid taxes to the government and asks for payment by credit card. The IRS says it always sends notifications about unpaid taxes by mail. If you believe you owe taxes, you may call the IRS at 800-829-1040. If you believe you were the target of a scam, you may call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
JURY DUTY: Someone calls saying he or she is a law enforcement officer and you owe a fine for failing to appear for jury duty or a court appearance. Threatening to have you arrested, the caller asks for immediate payment by credit card or for you to purchase a money card and to provide information that would allow the caller to access it. Anyone with information about such a scam may call the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office at 201-646-2222.
VIRTUAL KIDNAPPING: Someone calls saying he or she has kidnapped a loved one and demands you pay a ransom, often by wiring money to a location in another part of the country. In some cases, the callers say they are members of drug cartels, and someone can be heard screaming for help in the background. The FBI suggests requesting to speak to the victim, asking questions that only the victim would know, and asking to have the victim call back on his or her cellphone.

Wyckoff police said on Thursday that a 49-year-old resident began wiring $900 to people who told him they had kidnapped his brother. Fortunately, he was able to stop the money transfer last week after calling police, who arrived at his home in time to pick up the phone when he was called a second time.

“I was just kidding,” the person on the other end of the phone said after the officer identified himself, before quickly hanging up, Wyckoff Police Chief Ben Fox said.

Police reported that two Westwood residents were targeted in separate incidents over the Labor Day weekend, with another incident reported in Saddle Brook on Aug. 28. The Wyckoff incident occurred on Aug. 30. None of the four Bergen County victims paid the purported kidnappers, authorities said.

Police say virtual kidnappings are an outgrowth of similar scams that crop up for a time, then fade away, such as one targeting senior citizens who were told their grandchildren were in trouble and needed money. The most popular scams over the past few months have involved emails telling people they owe money to E-ZPass and people pretending to be from the Internal Revenue Service asking for payment of overdue federal taxes.

In May, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office said it uncovered an organized ring operating from a Georgia prison that swindled money from people across the country. Callers pretended to be law enforcement officers asking for payment of fines for missing jury duty or court appearances. Sheriff’s detectives arrested two people in Georgia, a corrections officer and an inmate, and said the ring involved perhaps hundreds of other inmates.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/phone-scams-getting-more-common-complex-in-north-jersey-1.1082157#sthash.rLisSW7j.dpuf