On 2/24/14, the Bates County Sheriff’s Office has received several complaints in regards to a telephone scam.
The telephone scam starts as a phone call from a person that tells you that you have won the lottery. The caller tells you to go to a store and purchase a gift card or a prepaid money card and send it to them or give them the numbers to the card. The caller then tells the victim that once this is done then they will receive the lottery winnings.
This is an old scam, but this time it has a new twist to make it appear to be legitimate. When the victim tells the caller that they have spoken to law enforcement and know this is a scam, the victim then receives an additional call from another subject that states “I am Chad Anderson and I want to confirm that this is not a scam.”
Scammers are now taking to the internet and researching Law Enforcement Officials in the victim’s area and impersonate the official to make the scam appear to be legitimate.
“I can assure the Citizens of Bates County that, in the event of such situation, we would respond in person to confirm the winnings.” Says Sheriff Anderson. “The Bates County Sheriff’s Office and its employees will never call asking for donations over the phone. If you receive any types of calls like this you can always contact us at 660-679-3232 to confirm if it is legitimate.”
These types of crimes go unprosecuted because the suspect is never identified. The caller can’t be traced because of the ability to utilize systems like magic jack to call from many different locations over the internet, with many locations being in other countries.
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