Phone scammers often gain access to victims’ information by telling the intended target they have won a contest, but they need the victim’s information to claim their prize. Other scammers have called saying a member of the victim’s family needs help or even bailed out of jail and the victim needs to send money to the scammer, often in the form of gift cards from large national stores.
During an appearance on Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse, Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Levi Dominguez informed listeners of a recent phone scam involving the impersonation of law enforcement.
Scammers often operate in foriegn countries and the sophistication of operations vary. According to Domiguez, trusting your caller id is no longer the best way to identify a scammer.
According to statista.com, scam calls in the United States caused a total loss of approximately $19.7 billion in 2020,
According to an online survey conducted by The Harris Poll, the amount of money lost by Americans in 2020 increased by $9.2 billion compared to 2019 and is the most amount of money lost due to scam calls between 2014 and 2020.
Thank you for sharing this information. I’ve just received 3 calls from similar scammers claiming to be from police department. Googled the number and found many reports have been filed at http://phonebook.ai since few weeks ago. People should be on extra guard.