Prince Edward Co. Police Warns Public of Scams

According to Sheriff Wesley Reed of the Prince Edward County Sheriff’s Office, during the last month there have been reports of several scams targeting adults.

One scam involves the person being mailed a check of x amount of dollars. Once the check is received there is a phone number on the accompanying letter asking the person to call or someone from the company calls that person once they believe the letter has been received. The caller will tell the receiver of the letter that in order for them to receive money from the deposited check that they must first send so much money by way of charge card, money gram, etc. to the company that issued the check. After doing this, most of the time the check will be sent through the bank only to find that insufficient funds are there. Then the receiver of the check is responsible to the bank for the total of the bad check.

Another scam exists through email, texts, and phone messages.  This time the scammer tells the person that they have won a sweepstakes with a large amount of money or a new car. In order to receive the winning, they must first go to Wal-mart and get a loadable credit card or a money gram. The scammer will tell the person how much money they should send in order to receive their sweepstakes winnings.

The next scam involves the scammer calling a person to ask them to change their beneficiary on their life insurance policy or on their retirement plan. The scammer will ask for the person’s social security number and their date of birth. This will give them valuable information to get the scammer’s name put on the life insurance or retirement policy. By the time the policy holder checks into this, all of the funds have been drained.

One other scam involves buying vehicles on-line. The scammer will usually list an expensive vehicle at a very low price giving a reason why they have listed it so low. By the time the person sends the money, there is no way to get in touch with the scammer. The scammers have collected the money and the person can no longer get in touch with them.

Sheriff Reed asks that every person be more aware of giving out personal information such as name, social security number, and date of birth. If you have elderly parents, please talk to them about this problem and keep a check on their finances. By doing so, we may be able to stop some of these scammers.