The Swampscott Police Department warns residents of the dangers of over-the-phone scams this holiday season.
Phone scammers use a variety of tactics to fee people to share their personal information and potentially even money. The scammers often exploit the holidays as more people are online shopping, donating to charities and traveling. There are many different types of over-the-phone scams that Swampscott Police Department says are becoming increasingly common.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” said Swampscott Police Officer Brendan Reen.
One of the most prominent phone schemes is fraudulent lottery or sweepstakes calls. Scammers will make calls saying that a sum of money has been won and request that the victim pays the taxes for the winnings over the phone using their credit card information.
Many scammers are also able to disguise their phone numbers to appear local or familiar to the victim, according to Reen.
Reen said another commonly reported scam will alert the victim that their social security number has been frozen.
The scammers will ask the victim to confirm their social security number and ask if they can keep the victim’s money on hold in gift cards or a separate bank account while the “issue” is sorted out.
The message is to always be skeptical when accepting a call, said Reen.
Reen also said the IRS will never call your phone. If the IRS needs to reach someone, they will send correspondence through mail.
These imposters will typically warn the victim that they owe taxes and demand that they be paid. The scammers may threaten jail time or even impersonate law enforcement officers.
On computer and laptop screens, tech support scams run rampant.
Someone might receive a popup alert saying there are viruses on their device.
“A lot of the time, people think they are talking to real tech support companies,” said Reen. “The fraudsters will often threaten the victim that there has been criminal evidence found on the computer – And if the victim does not pay the tech support to clear the problem it would be released to the public.”
Some over-the-phone scams target certain age groups.
Reen said that elderly might receive a call that their grandchild has been arrested and is calling from jail in search of money to bail them out.
The scammer will say the child did not want to tell their parents and is instead giving grandma or grandpa a call for help.
It is important to always be vigilant when an unrecognized caller pops up. Scammers commit fraud professionally and disguise their intent with a number of different methods. Avoid giving out credit card or personal information over the phone.
