Grandparent scams

Victims (Grandparents) receive phone calls from scammers claiming to be their young adult grandchild that was actively in a car accident and needed money or just arrested and needed bail money. Victims commonly wire money to scammers to help their grandchildren.

Romance scams

Victims (both young & older adults) often seek romance on internet dating sites/social media platforms and begin chatting with unsuspecting interested parties. The scammers often chat with the victims via word text and less frequent personal phone calls. The scammer will attempt to build trust with the victim after multiple days, weeks, or months of conversation. The scammer will then ask the victim to wire money to the unsuspecting party to help pay/fund the scammer’s visit to them from across the country or from overseas.

Lottery/sweepstakes scam

Victims receive a letter in the mail, email, phone call or text message on their cell phones, declaring that they are a winner of a lottery or national sweepstakes in a large amount of money. Once the victims respond or acknowledge further interest, the unsuspecting scammers will begin further chat/correspondence with the victims to gain trust. The scammer may mail a counterfeit “Bank Check” to the victim and ask the victim to not cash the check until the victim sends/wires both cash/cashier’s check(s) to pay for the taxes on the winnings. The scammers will often communicate to the victims to not trust or tell anybody about their arrangement and will often have a courier to the victim’s house to personally pick up the money from the victim. Victims can be targeted multiple times with the same incident. Scammers will not stop until the victim runs out of money or finds out it is a scam.

Refund scam

Victims receive a phone call from an unsuspecting scammer claiming they are representatives from one of the larger local department stores in their area, claiming that the victim has an unpaid/overdue balance that was placed on lay-away several months ago. When the victim tells the unsuspecting scammers that the victim does not have an account or placed a lay-away order, the scammer will tell the victim that their identity has been stolen and refer the victim to their fraud department and the victim gets transferred to another scammer. Eventually, the scammers will attempt to earn the victim’s trust and will request money from the victims to repair their identity through their corporate attorney which will cost thousands of dollars. Scammers usually request the victims to pay the attorney fees by wiring the money or by purchasing gift cards and giving the scammers with the code numbers on the back of the card. The scammers may also send a courier to pick up the cash from your house if you agree with their request.

Social Security Administration Impostor Scam

Social Security Administration imposters contact prospective victims by telephone and falsely claim that the victim’s Social Security number has been suspended because of suspicious activity, or because it has been involved in a crime. They ask to confirm the victim’s Social Security number, or they may say they need to withdraw money from the victim’s bank and to store it on gift cards or in other unusual ways for “safekeeping.” Victims may be told their accounts will be seized or frozen if they fail to act quickly.

Perpetrators often use robocalls to reach victims. Victims may be told to “press 1” to speak to a government “support representative” for help reactivating their Social Security number. They also use caller ID spoofing to make it look like the Social Security Administration is calling. With such trickery, perpetrators convince victims to give up their Social Security numbers and other personal information. Social Security Administration imposters operating from abroad often use U.S.-base money mules to receive victim payments and transmit proceeds to perpetrators.

Tech Support Scam

Fraudsters make telephone calls and claim to be computer technicians associated with a well-known company or they may use internet pop-up messages to warn about non-existent computer problems. The scammers claim they have detected viruses, other malware, or hacking attempts on the victim’s computer. They pretend to be “tech support” and ask that the victim give them remote access to his or her computer. Eventually, they diagnose a non-existent problem and ask the victim to pay large sums of money for unnecessary – or even harmful – services. Tech Support Scams operating from abroad often use U.S.-based money mules (including legitimate-seeming businesses registered in the U.S.) to receive victim payments and transmit proceeds to perpetrators.

Refund scheme: After victims make payments, perpetrators often call back and offer refunds to victims, claiming their tech support services are no longer available. Perpetrators claim to send refund money to the victim’s bank account but falsely claim that too much money was refunded. Perpetrators then induce victims to send payments (often through stored-value cards such as gift cards), purportedly to reimburse the tech support company for its “over-refund.” Victims have lost hundreds or thousands of dollars to this refund scheme.

IRS Impostor Scam

IRS Imposter Scams are aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers. Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, but are not. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a wire transfer or stored value card such as a gift card. Victims who refuse to cooperate are threatened with arrest, deportation, or suspension of a business or driver’s license. IRS Imposter Scams operating from abroad often use U.S.-based money mules to receive victim payments and transmit proceeds to perpetrators.