OC Sheriff’s Office issues November 2017 Scams Update

In their continuing efforts to educate and inform citizens and to prevent them from becoming victims of scams, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is releasing the 2017 Scams Update. The Sheriff’s Office received word recently of a victim who purchased Clemson season football tickets from an individual through an online app. The tickets and parking passes were exchanged for money. The victim attempted to make entry into Death Valley for the Boston College game with the tickets. After being denied entry into the stadium, the victim visited the offices of IPTAY, where the victim was informed that the tickets were stolen. The case was turned over to the Criminal Investigations Division. The seller of the tickets told the victim that he would contact law enforcement, but at this time, the Sheriff’s Office has yet to hear from him. “While the Sheriff’s Office does not want to discourage online commerce, we do ask our citizens to exercise caution,” says Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Jimmy Watt. “Tickets for sporting events and concerts can be counterfeited or may possibly be stolen and then attempted to be resold. If you are looking to buy tickets to a sporting event, please consider buying them from the official athletic ticket office of that particular team. If tickets are sold out for an event, you may want to check with a trusted family member or friend to see if they are perhaps selling tickets. If those options prove to be unfruitful, you may want to consider purchasing tickets from a reputable ticket broker who offers a 100% guarantee on what they sell. Sometimes, you can go to the official website of an athletic team, for example, and look at options for the purchasing and selling of tickets with that type of guarantee.” The Sheriff’s Office also received word from a citizen who had been a victim of an online scam. The victim reportedly received a message on Facebook from a friend indicating that the friend had just won money by entering some information online. The message stated that the friend had checked the victim’s name and the victim had won $129,000. The victim was told to send an e-mail to claim the prize, which the victim complied in doing. The victim was instructed to send $100 in iTunes cards in order to claim the prize, which the victim complied once again. The victim then sent information regarding the cards to the e-mail address, however, the victim was asked to send another $50 on an iTunes card, which the victim did. The victim did not receive any response from the e-mail and after speaking with a deputy, the victim notified the officer that a picture of the victim’s driver’s license was sent through the e-mail. The victim was advised to contact the credit bureau and seek fraud protection. “Scammers love to play on people’s emotions and one of those emotions, if you will, will be getting something for nothing,” continues PIO Watt. “In this case, the victim was told they had won $129,000 and only had to send $150 in iTunes cards. First, always remember if something sounds too good to be true, more often than not it is. Secondly, as we have advised previously, legitimate businesses will not request payments using any type of gift cards and once that scammer has the PIN numbers from those cards, recovery of money on those cards is practically impossible once it is gone. Also, never provide any type of personal information to anyone unless you initiate the contact and if you do and they require it, there is nothing wrong with asking why and for what purpose they need it. Should you receive an e-mail or something via social media from a friend saying you won something, contact that friend to verify that it is legitimate. Also remember in contests or sweepstakes, you normally have to enter in order to win and if someone sends you something saying you have won a contest that you did not enter, be advised that it is more than likely a scam.” The Sheriff’s Office also received word from a citizen in regards to receiving a call from someone claiming to be a law enforcement officer stating that the victim’s grandson had been arrested and needed money to post bail. The victim was told to go purchase gift cards to cover the bail money. The victim obtained the cards, called the individual claiming to be an officer and provided the PIN numbers for the cards. The victim also said that someone claiming to be the victim’s grandson called but his voice sounded funny due to a claim of being sick. The next day, the victim received a call from the same individual claiming to be Sgt. Johnson who stated that more money was needed. The victim purchased more cards and provided the PIN numbers for the cards after calling back. The victim did contact her grandson, who refuted the story. The victim placed charges totaling $4,000 on a credit card to pay for the gift cards. PIO Watt also spoke with a citizen recently who stated a family member received a phone call from another family member who stated that they were in jail and needed $2,000 for bond money. The family member asked for a phone number and received one and then called back later and spoke to someone claiming to be an attorney and that the family member needed to send money to him for bond purposes. When the citizen asked the attorney what his name was, the family member was hung up on. The family member who was reportedly in jail was contacted and stated that they were not in jail. “I actually called the number that the citizen provided in regards to the second incident and got someone on the line. When I told them who I was and where I worked, I got the name of the person on the other end, someone claiming to be John. When I told John that I was contacted concerning someone who was in jail and the fact they needed bond money, I told them I knew the person was not in jail. I got hung up on,” says PIO Watt. “There are many signs pointing to scams in these two situations. First of all in the first incident, law enforcement is not going to call a family member of someone in jail and say that their family member needs bail money. Those arrangements to post bail are done through the judicial process and it is usually up to the arrestee to make those arrangements himself or herself without a law enforcement officer getting involved in the process. Secondly, legitimate businesses and judicial offices will not
require payment via a prepaid or gift card in order to post bond. If someone is released on their own recognizance, that is one thing, but if a person receives a surety bond, at the very least they will have to put a percentage of cash or property up to cover at least a portion of the bond amount.” “Thirdly, if you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be a family member who is in jail and something does not sound right, hang up the phone and make contact with that family member or someone in the family to verify the account,” continues PIO Watt. “Finally, once a PIN number is given for a gift or prepaid card, as we said previously, that money on that card is lost and more than likely will never be recovered.” The Sheriff’s Office also received word recently about a citizen receiving a call from someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service regarding back taxes and that the citizen would be arrested if the back taxes were not paid. The citizen called the number back and informed those who called that the victim did not have the full amount to cover the back taxes but an amount was agreed upon by the parties so the victim would not be arrested and to stop the warrant. The victim went and purchased a Green Dot card and called back to provide the PIN number for the card. The victim notified the Sheriff’s Office about the scam. “We are continuing to hear about IRS scams and much of the information we hear is the same in regards to what citizens are being told,” says PIO Watt. “One of the things we always hear from the scammers is the threat of arrest due to back taxes being paid. We have emphasized on more than one occasion that the IRS will send a letter in the mail to notify individuals of issues regarding their taxes and they will not call you on the phone or threaten you with arrest. In this case, we see something involving a prepaid card and as we have stated in this release, legitimate businesses and organizations will not require payment on a prepaid card.” “We recommend that if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, hang up the phone and contact the Internal Revenue Service at 1-800-829-1040 to make an inquiry concerning your tax status,” continues PIO Watt. “Also, you can report an IRS scam directly to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration by clicking on https://www.treasury.gov/tigta.”