Many of us have heard of phone scams targeting residents, but the latest one threatens to have local cops arrest you.
The Better Business Bureau of Acadiana is receiving dozens of calls from senior citizens regarding this scam.
I sat down with a former assistant attorney general of Louisiana who wants to let the elderly know of this scam.
Col. Jeron J. La Fargue, retired Attorney at Law, says, “The main thing is unfortunately there are people in the world who will try to take advantage of senior citizens.”
“This is the voicemail that elderly people in the area are receiving trying to extort money from them:”
“This is a notification regarding your tax filings from the headquarters which will get expired in the next 24 working hours and once again, if it expires, you will be taken under custody by the local cops.”
The end of the voicemail says to call this number back: 315-992-1903.
“An elderly person who does not have my background would think that it’s true that someone is going to come knock on their door, police and take them into custody,” La Fargue says.
The Better Business Bureau says the number the scammers are calling from is not local.
Jenn Love, with the Better Business Bureau of Acadiana, says, “It’s funny because they’ll call from a non-local number and they’ll say the local cops are coming but they won’t say what parish or what city they’re even living in it’s just very generic that the local cops are coming.”
Mr. La Fargue says he thinks these phone scams originate outside of the country.
“I’m not sure that they could arrest them because they’re out of the country but the main thing is for people to understand that it is a scam,” explains La Fargue.
“Some people think just because they have your name and they know their phone number that they have all this information, they’ll volunteer it thinking they already have it and that’s not the case. Don’t give out any of your personal information,” Love adds.
In order to avoid this threatening phone scam, here are some suggestions from the Better Business Bureau:
Don’t give out any personal information, including your name, address, or especially your banking information.
Don’t trust your caller ID. Scammers now have the technology to take the caller ID and distort it to any number.
Government agencies will not call you. They will send you a letter if they need to contact you.
If you have a scam you’d like me to investigate, feel free to send me an email at smasters@klfy.com.
The Better Business Bureau adds scammers are even calling your personal cell phone through your landline number. This is called “spoofing” so be careful because it is a scammer.
The Better Business Bureau also says to not return the call if the scammer leaves a voicemail.
