Be scam aware

4 mins read

FARMINGTON – The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department would like to remind people that they should never give any personal information, including social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, date of birth, mailing or physical address to anyone over the phone or over the internet.

Banks, credit unions, credit card companies and any other reputable company will never call and ask for this information, they will mail you a notification and usually ask that you come in to your local branch to take care of any issues. A common scam involves a caller asking for you to give them your information so they can confirm their records. In fact, they are stealing your information, noted Lt. David Rackliffe of Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

Also be aware of companies calling offering to enter you into lotteries where you are “guaranteed to win” or “have already won” but have to provide your bank or credit card information to be charged a small fee for the processing of your winnings. These are almost always scams and you risk extensive loss of funds, improper charges and credit fraud.

Often, callers will say they are calling from legitimate charities. One of the most recent that has surfaced locally, is a caller saying they are calling from the Wounded Warrior Foundation. While this is a legitimate organization, the caller was in fact a scammer, trying to prey on the emotion of the person they were calling, Rackliffe said.

These scammers frequently prey on the elderly who are generally much more trusting and vulnerable. If you have elderly parents or grandparents, take the time to talk with them about being cautious of such callers.

Another common scam involves a caller saying they know you are having problems with your computer, after all who doesn’t. They will then have you enter information into your computer which will give them the ability to connect directly to your computer through the internet. Once that connection is established, they have full control and access to anything and everything in your computer, including stored passwords, websites, browsing history and any files saved on your computer. They may also ask for credit card or bank account information to charge you for their service. Again, they are most likely stealing your information. If you need computer service, please seek out a local computer service repair company, never allow anyone to fix your computer from a remote location.

There is a federal web page www.ic3.gov where you can register complaints of internet crime. This is a trusted FBI web site. They will ask for personal information in order to register a complaint, just as any police officer would in order to investigate a complaint. If you contact your local police with a complaint, they will most likely take your complaint and then refer you to the above web site. It is most unfortunate that most complaints of fraud cannot be tracked down as with the internet and phone systems, the caller can be anywhere in the world, far outside the reach of the FBI.

If you have any questions about the legitimacy of an organization, you can also check the Better Business Bureau website at www.bbb.org. The best defense is to be aware and to not provide any information to anyone calling seeking information and never give personal information over the internet, Rackliffe said.

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3 Comments

  1. i was recently ask for my medicare card number, please take note that that is your social security number with a letter attached to it.

  2. Just received a call last night! A woman said she was windows tech support and she wanted me to log on my computer and go to a web site and she said she would fix it.
    I have dealt with the REAL “Microsoft” tech support and they informed me that they would NEVER call me. so be aware!
    I was even more concerned this time I got the call because I listened in the background and it sounded like a call center. I believe there might be quite a scam going on here. let your friends know…..

  3. Been getting a lot of these calls recently .If you tell them not to call again it doesn’t phase them at all they still continue .Yes it does sound like a call center .

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