Bee Investigator: Scam season in Modesto

Every few months, I get a call from a scam victim who wants to share his or her experiences so others don’t fall prey to the same scam.

The ruses might be obvious to some, but the reason many of them persist year after year is because people continue to fall for them. And the scams that fail are replaced with new ones.

This week, I’ll alert you to the newest holiday scams, as well as remind you of the classics.

Scammers pull on their victims’ heartstrings, play on their fears or offer something that only in hindsight is too good to be true.

Heartstrings: The “grandparent scam” combines seniors’ love for their grandchildren with the urgency of helping them.

People will call claiming to be the victim’s grandchild and say their car broke down, they were in an accident or they got arrested and need money for repairs or bail. The scammer might also pose as an attorney or law enforcement official calling on the grandchild’s behalf.

They will demand the money be wired immediately.

Sometimes the scammers choose their victims randomly and hope they reach a grandparent. But they also use marketing lists, obituaries and other sources to find seniors, according to the Consumer Federation of America.

The elderly most often are victims of all types of scams. People raised in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s were generally raised to be more polite and trusting and find it difficult or impossible to hang up the telephone, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Fear and intimidation: “A lady that came into the lobby (last week) was visibly shaken,” said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves. “She was fearful she was going to be arrested by the IRS.”

The “you owe the Internal Revenue Service money so send us a prepaid credit card or wire the money to some island country to avoid arrest” scam has been around for a few years now.

Graves said scammers even are getting creative by using names people would recognize, including hers.

As Modesto PD spokeswoman, Graves’ name or face is in the The Modesto Bee or on TV news nearly every day.

Someone cued into that and posed as her, telling the victim she was collecting money on behalf of the IRS.

These people can be really aggressive and intimidating, but law enforcement agencies don’t make collections calls, Graves said, nor are they in the practice of alerting people they are about to be arrested.

Too good to be true: You can get a large sum of money from a Nigerian prince or a distant relative in another country if you just send a proportionately smaller sum to transfer the money out of the country.

Those particular topics are overdone, but scammers are always thinking of new ways to entice their victims.

Oakdale resident Norma Solka, 73, got a call last month from a man who said she won $250,000 from the Publishers Clearing House. All she needed to do is get a Green Dot MoneyPak for $199 and send it to the caller to claim the prize.

Graves said the Green Dot MoneyPak cards are a prepaid card that scammers commonly instruct their victims to use.

“It all sounded so real,” Solka said. “I wanted it to be real.”

But she eventually caught on before she revealed too much, and she hung up the phone.

The thief was persistent, though, and called her back twice. The second time, he threatened to harm her when she said she would call the police.

Solka learned the man was calling from a number out of Jamaica, but she still watched out her window for several days in fear that he would harm her.

“Why should old people have to go through this?” she said. “This is Christmastime; I could do a lot of wonderful things with that money.”

That’s something scammers consider.

During the holiday season, people are short on funds and looking for the best deal.

The Better Business Bureau compiled a list of popular holiday scams that include fake websites intended to steal your credit card information, fake gift cards sold on the Internet, and even fake pedigree puppies that will never materialize after the money has been wired.

The most important thing to do is be skeptical of anyone who calls asking for personal information. Ask for a name; if it’s someone claiming to be from a law enforcement agency, ask for a badge number; hang up the phone and call the company’s number in public listings, not the one given to you by the caller.

The Better Business Bureau is a great resource if you are unsure about making a transaction with a person over the Internet or about a businesses you’ve never heard of. Go to its website at www.bbb.org for more information.

Graves said one of the newest scams being reported to Modesto Police Department is a caller claiming he’s from Microsoft and has detected a virus in your computer. The scammer will ask for the your password so that he can remotely log on to your computer to fix the problem, then hack into all the personal information on it.

Phone and online scams are hard to solve, so it’s an appealing crime with little risk. The perpetrator is hard to trace and might not even live in the country.

But good old-fashioned purse snatchings and car burglaries remain and also should be considered during the holiday season and year-round.

Don’t leave valuables in your car; lock your doors and, most important, be aware of your surroundings.

“We live in the heads-down generation,” Graves said of people who can’t seem to put down their cellphones. “Well, you are an easy victim that way. The text message can wait; the Internet can wait.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2014 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Bee Investigator: Scam season in Modesto."