TAZEWELL, Va. -In this year’s first quarter, there have been 51 scams reported to the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office. That’s roughly the same number of scams as last year at this time, but the amount of money taken has ballooned by a whopping 154%, taking more than $560,000 this year alone.
We spoke to Lieutenant Mike Hall with the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office, who says while scammers are pretending to be anything from the lottery to law enforcement, the reason these scams are so effective is their knowledge about you.
“They know their name, they may know their address, they may know a family member which makes the scam a little more legitimate…” says Lt. Hall, “…These people are very good… They’ve got their script down, they’re very convincing, very personable, and, like I said, they have personal information that makes it a little more legitimate.”
The plot is simple: use extortion or fraud to convince people to give the scammer money using Western Union, money cards, and now even cryptocurrency. They tend to use these methods of money transfer because of how difficult it is to track and how quickly your money can be lost overseas.
“They’re not easily tracked, and the majority of the scams, once you pay the money, within a day, it’s wired overseas. It’s not able to be tracked, and people have to realize that, once that money is gone, law enforcement can’t get it back… We are at a one hundred percent loss, we’re not able to get that money back for you,” says Lt. Hall.
Lieutenant Hall has seen people lose anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $400,000 and has seen the same people get scammed multiple times.
“We’ve had some people who have fallen victim to a lottery scam, and they just keep calling back, calling back, and once you send that money the first time, they’ll keep calling back, keep contacting you because they believe they can milk money from you,” says Lt. Hall.
Lieutenant Hall says someone with a foreign accent using high pressure tactics to get you send money should immediately set off alarm bells in your head that something is off. He also wants to remind people that the IRS and law enforcement are not going to call and ask for money, even if you do owe them. Also, if you’ve never played the lottery, you haven’t won the lottery.
Lt. Hall encourages you to talk to your family members, especially the elderly, about what to do if someone on the phone or online is asking for money. He says, you should tell them to hang up and call someone they trust.
Copyright 2024 WVVA. All rights reserved.