Scam artists have been targeting a small community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and police are warning residents to be aware.
The phone scams are concerning, especially for older people, and also nearly impossible to prosecute. Most of the time the person on the other line, is not in this country.
In the past week, two people have gone to the Manor Township Police saying that someone tried to scam them over the phone. One person was told their son was in an accident and they needed to send money to help him.
The other person, an 80-year-old woman, was told she won $900,000 in a lottery and only had to send $300 to collect the prize money. She told the person on the other line to get a job and quit bothering her. A quick check revealed the call came from Jamaica.
"If it sounds too good to be true, a lot of times it is," explained Sergeant Carolyn Gundel of Manor Township Police. "There's no way for us to catch who's doing it."
To avoid being a victim, Sgt. Gundel recommends several precautions. Never give any personal information over the phone like your social security or credit card numbers; never wire money, because once it's gone it's gone; and ask questions, if it is a scam you will know quickly.
"They are frightening, these older people in their own homes and they're not even possibly in this country," Gundel said. "But these people are now fearful that somebody knows where they live and if they don't pay the money they are going to come after them."
Sgt. Gundel went on to say a while back one person in Manor Township fell for one of these scams to the tune of $5000.
Many people need to quit being scam artists and get jobs. Good for her.
Scam artists are usually self-employed, running scams are their jobs.
Next time, tell them not to bother you with such a small amount of money. You need to keep the phone line open so you can hear from a Nigerian prince who will send you millions!
She should of notified the "Amish Mafia". They'll straighten them out.
"If it sounds too good to be true, a lot of times it is," explained Sergeant Carolyn Gundel of Manor Township Police. "There's no way for us to catch who's doing it."
This sentence that I quoted from the news article above,shows that sometimes it's possible for criminals to get a way with crimes they committed,which shouldn't have been the case.
If they only would......... The world would be a BETTER place.
I'm glad that this sheriff is giving honest advice that NOTHING can be done to protect their residents in this plague. As always, it's buyer beware. People of all ages, it's okay to answer your phone, but probably better to let ALL unrecognized phone #s go to one's answering machine. Later calling ONLY one's friends or vendor relationships back.
Or if became a scam artist, be able to go to a local location where they may request a quick, pain free suicide pill ... even if they are in that location illegally. It's a strange country that will do the same for a lesser animal, but not a human animal. Each country is overpopulated anyhow, why not let volunteers willing to 'remove themselves from the ole treadmill' come forward easily (each country's organized religions and governments shouldn't be afraid if it is 1/3 of their adult residents)?
"...request a quick, pain free suicide pill..."
We have Death Panels now to handle those little unpleasantries of life.
You don't even have to bother thinking about when it's your time to go.
Some government bureaucrats will decide that for you.
They know what's best for the police state us anyway.
I am glad she was smart enough to know a scam when she saw (heard) one. I feel little sympathy for those who fall for scams. I was raised to know lunch is never free and money does not fall from the trees.
Not every scam offer a free lunch or a money tree, just a cheap lunch or a tree that will grow in value. They are the hardest kinds of scams to spot and they're usually local.
"Death panels" have existed for many, many years. It started when insurance companies began caring more about profit than people.
I agree: Some of the horror stories of people being told to wire a few grand in order to collect the so called " millions" all in their name is total BS. Like someone once said- " why not take the few grand off the top of the prize money and send the rest "
About 5 years ago l got an email from Nigeria telling me l won half a Billion dollars all l had to do to collect was send a modest fee of $300.00 for administration & office regulatory fees in order to " tranfer" my winnings. I did not bother responding...my lose..l guess.
i'd like to see them made into gravy train. one old lady is being put to death in indinesia for a scam carrying drugs or her kids get it. scams against the aged and baffled are becoming more like this now. kill the scammers and be done with it, it is not funny or cute. they are causing serious suffering and deprivation.
If I recall, I believe that it was Michelin that used to run an AD on TV on why Michelin tires should be on your vehicles, because there were more important reasons in life than skimping on tires or something along those lines. The Ads targeted parents and the more important reasons were the children being transported regularly in the vehicles.
The Biritish grandmother Lindsay Sandiford 56 that you are talking about recieved a death sentence in Bali for the guilt of drug trafficking. According to the bbc.co.uk,
" Sandiford, 56, was arrested at Bali's airport in May 2012 after 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine was found in her suitcase lining during a routine check.
She faces death by firing squad.
Sandiford says she was coerced into carrying drugs by gangsters who were threatening to hurt one of her children.
Sandiford is not elderly. She is still a young 56 year old. Her excuse about the gangsters who coerced her is as lame as the excuses of the NY brothers who stole their customer's wining $5m lottery ticket and waited years, them came up with the tall tale that the brothers were sharing the loot because of all the good things one did for the other and about managing the potential impact that such a wining could have on a planned marriage.
There is no scamming for the Brit. She could have gone to the Bobbies or Scotland Yard, she did not.
Most, if not all all of these scammers that target the elderly and many others in the article have no physical contact whatsoever with their victims and I don't believe that the vast majority want to have any form of physical contacts either.
For the most part, they are mostly nomadic on-the-run- thieves operating heavily out of Canada, and here in the USA, and many offshore locations, armed with a yahoo or hotmail email account, disposable pre-paid no-contract cell phones, prepaid phone cards, Internet Cafes and reliance on Western Union and Money Gram for receiving loots.
No one scammed young Sandiford. She did what she did and it takes maturity and soundness of mind to board a plane in the UK to Bali on the other side of the planet, away from the safety of her home, to break the law of the land, enacted by the people to keep their people safer from hopeless and wasted lives and needless deaths.
Good for her........