Luzerne County Sheriff Brian Szumski issued a warning Wednesday about continuing reports of phone scammers impersonating law enforcement officials to extort money from victims.
“These fraudulent activities have been happening across the nation but have been increasing recently here in Luzerne County,” he said.
While scam specifics vary, callers typically falsely claim to be a law enforcement officer — including a member of the county sheriff’s department in recent instances, Szumski said.
Victims are informed a warrant has been issued due to missed court appearances, failure to appear for jury duty, unpaid fines or similar reasons.
The scammers are threatened with immediate arrest unless prompt payment is made, with options to pay through various forms such as Wal-Mart or Apple iTunes gift cards.
Perpetrators often use the names of actual deputies or police officers and may use spoofing to make the phone number appear as if the call is coming from a nearby law enforcement agency, it said.
Scammers sometimes resort to sending victims counterfeit law enforcement credentials by email and fraudulent documents resembling warrants by text, Szumski said.
Szumski provided these tips:
• If you receive a communication that causes a strong emotional response, take a deep breath and hang up or ignore the message. Talk to someone you trust.
• Never pay someone who insists that you pay with a gift card, prepaid debit card, internet currency or cryptocurrency, wire transfers, money transfers or by mailing cash. Scammers use these payment forms because they are hard to trace.
• If you think a real law enforcement officer is trying to reach you, call your local law enforcement using a non-emergency number to verify. Do not believe scammers who “transfer” your call to an official or who give you a number as proof. Scammers can create fake numbers and identities. Do not trust your caller ID.
• Be cautious of any contact claiming to be from a government agency or law enforcement telling you about a problem you don’t recognize. Do not provide your personal information, even if the caller has some of your information.
• Do not click on links or attachments.
Information on scams is available on the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer advice site at consumer.ftc.gov/scams.
Scam victims should stop talking to the caller, notify financial institutions and protect accounts, contact and file a report with local law enforcement and keep a record of all financial transactions and communications with the scammer, Szumski said.
A complaint also should be filed with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.ic3.gov and on the FTC website at reportfraud.ftc.gov, he said.