Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Releases January 2021 Scams Update

(Walhalla, SC)————-In our continuing efforts to educate and inform our citizens and to prevent them from becoming victims of scams, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is releasing today our January 2021 Scams Update.

There are two main focuses of the January 2021 Scams Update. First, the Sheriff’s Office has received and taken reports recently from our citizens who are being scammed by those who are claiming to be from Amazon. The scams follow the same pattern as the victims are contacted from someone who says they are from Amazon. The caller tells the victim that they have charges on their Amazon account or the victims owe Amazon money.

When the victim questions the charges on the account, the caller instructs them to go and purchase gift cards so money can be credited to their account. Once the gift cards are purchased, then the victims are instructed by the caller to provide the card numbers so the caller can access the money on the card.

One two occasions, victims gave their callers their bank account information and after purchasing thousands of dollars in gift cards, and supplying the caller with the gift card information, the victims discovered they were out $7,000 and $9,000 respectively. For one of the victim’s, their financial institution opened a new account for the victim who was scammed out of $7,000 and her money was returned.

Another victim was scammed due to receiving a call from a supposed Amazon employee concerning an Amazon Prime account that the victim did not sign up for but the caller said that there were problems with money accredited to the account. The caller informed the victim that the charges could be corrected by payment in the form of a gift card. The victim purchased the cards and gave the numbers on the cards to the callers.

In four of the scams reported to the Sheriff’s Office, a total of $25,000 was placed on the gift cards whose numbers were provided to the callers.

“Online shopping has increased in the last several years, including the past year as we have been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Master Deputy Jimmy Watt, Public Information Officer. “I have shopped via Amazon before, as millions of people have. It is no wonder that scammers are taking advantage of this opportunity to scam our citizens. At the Sheriff’s Office, we have emphasized, on numerous occasions and in numerous scam alerts, that if someone requests payment via a gift or a prepaid card, it is a scam. Legitimate businesses will not ask for a payment via a gift card. Also, if someone calls you claiming to be from Amazon saying that you owe money or money has been incorrectly placed in your account, hang up the phone and check your account online. If you need to, check on the official Amazon website for a customer service number, call that number and speak with a representative of the company to make them aware of these scam attempts. We also recommend that you file a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and with the law enforcement agency in your jurisdiction. The Federal Trade Commission has some good information as well regarding gift card scams and how you can report these scams at this address: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/paying-scammers-gift-cards.

A deputy also informed Master Deputy Watt of scam call to one of our citizens from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration. The deputy said that the calls are being spoofed so it appears that the callers are calling from a local number even though they are calling from overseas. The calls consist of an automated message.

“We mentioned these Social Security Scams in our November 2020 scams update and I wanted to share the same information in this update that we shared then,” says PIO Watt. “One of the first rules of scams is that scammers want to play on your emotions, including creating a sense of fear or panic in their victims in order for those victims to make decisions that they may not otherwise make,” says Master Deputy Jimmy Watt, Public Information Officer for the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. “No one wants to be told that they have the potential to be arrested for a crime, especially when they did not do it and also considering the problem of identity fraud. Scammers work year round and their job is to steal your money. Don’t focus too much on whether a particular time of the year produces more of a particular type of scam. Be on your guard year round for scams because scammers never take a day off.”

According to information provided on the Social Security Administration website (ssa.gov), they are advising citizens that Social Security may contact you by phone, however, they never will:

• Threaten You
• Suspend your Social Security Numbers
• Demand Immediate Payment from you
• Require payment by cash, gift card, pre-paid debit card or wire transfer

The Social Security Administration website also advises citizens to look out for the following:

• Caller who say that there is a problem with your Social Security Account or number
• Any call asking you to pay a fine with retail gift cards, cash, wire transfers or pre-paid debit cards
• Scammers who pretend they’re from Social Security or another government agency. Caller ID or documents sent by e-mail may look officials but they are not.
• Callers threaten you with arrest or legal action.

The Social Security Administration recommends that if you receive a suspicious call, to do the following:

• Hang Up!
• Do not give them money or personal information
• Report the scam at oig.ssa.gov

“Besides reporting these types of scams to the Office of the Inspector General, we also recommend to our citizen that if they have suffered financial loss or if personal identifying information or financial account information has been compromised, they should request a report to be filed with the Sheriff’s Office or the law enforcement agency in their jurisdiction,” continues Master Deputy Watt. “In some cases, financial institutions may require a report to be filed with a law enforcement agency in order for an investigation to begin on their part or for restitution purposes.”

Submitted By: Master Deputy Jimmy Watt
Public Information Officer, OCSO