Posts Tagged ‘ Holiday ’

Wanted to do a public service announcement for the upcoming holiday season. DON”T BECOME A VICTIM! (Thanks to IACA for the info)

• A common one around Christmas is a suspect contacts someone on Craigslist or even shopping for TVs and say their relative works for a big box store and they are giving huge deals to associates on open box/close out/old model tvs. They meet up outside the store, the mark gives the suspect cash plus a bonus to go in and buy it and never comes out, taking off with the cash.

• A woman, after 9 pm takes a Taxi, leads the cab driver onto a ficticious address, and once she sees a police car, asks the cabby to stop the car, she tears her own clothes violently and treathens the cab driver with acussing him of “Rape” if he doesn´t give away all of his money to her (occurs commonly in Mexico City).

• In this case suspect “accidentally” bumps into victim, and either by quick hand or distraction steals wallet or other valuable item.

• Contacting elderly individuals and stating that they are with the police department and their grandchild has been involved in a DUI related accident and they need to send bond money so that they can be released.

• Reporting Person received an email supposedly from the IRS saying that her bank account had been cancelled by her financial institution and her payment was not received with a tax receipt ID #96717002563037. RP verified with the IRS that the email was fraudulent. The email had an IRS logo on it and looked “official”. (“AU” country code forAustralia)

• On September 15th, 2011, Reporting Person listed his address on Tucson MLS for rent. He later found his home listed for rent by an unknown person for $800 using a fake email address for the RP’s wife. The phone number on the fraudulent ad forwards to an answering service. RP believes the person looked up the property via Pima County Assessor online because his wife was still using her maiden name at the time and that is what the suspect used. RP advised his home currently has tenants and the tenants advised that people have been going to the home to inquire about renting it. The RP’s wife’s parents received a call from someone in Casa Grande who said she had sent money via Western Union to London for the first month’s rent. The woman found the parents via the RP’s wife’s maiden name.

• Reporting Person received a phone call from a “Sgt. Alan Cortez”. When the phone rang, it rang differently than usual and the word “emergency” appeared on the screen with no number. The caller advised her there would be an arrest warrant for her by 1630 this day if she didn’t pay $1636 for an online cash loan that was in collections. He gave her the phone number of (701)214-6452 and told her to call and speak with Officer Daniel Carter. Carter instructed her to get a Walmart cash card then call him back with the account number on the card and fax him a copy of her driver’s license and sign a payment authorization form. He had her full name, address, cell phone number and the last four digits of her SSN. RP didn’t comply and called police instead. When an officer called the number, the suspect spoke with a heavy Middle Eastern accent and became angry and demanded to know who was “reporting” him and eventually hung up.

• Reporting Person advertised two chairs on Craigslist for $100. She was contacted by “Thomas Axelson” sealand91@hotmail.com to see if she still had the chairs on 10/04. She said yes and he said he would send a check. On 10/06, he emailed that a mistake had been made and the check was for $2780 instead of $100.  He asked her to take $100 for the chairs and sed the rest back to his movers. The envelope had a return address of Michael Paulik, 213 North Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA 91203, check written by Integrated Med, Seattle Reproductive Medicine, 1505 Westlake Ave, N4th Floor, Seattle, WA 98109

  Reporting Person responded to a Craigslist ad about a rental property. When asking questions, she didn’t receive replies but was told the person’s name was Charolette Arnold and was currently in West Africa for church missionary work. She was told the first month payment of $800 and a deposit of $500 was to be sent via Western Union. She didn’t send money or give banking information.

  (We get quite a few
  of these Craigslist-type overpayment scam attempts)

  October, 2011 – Three to four months ago, a company was contacted via email and phone solicitations for an “Inaugural Counter-Narcotics & Border Control Summit” to be held in Tucson October 11-12, 2011. The company was invited to participate by presenting modern technologies for countering the international drug trade. $14,950 was wired to an unknown individual for a “silver sponsor package” which included a display of company logos, delegate passes and preferred meetings. Prior to their arrival in Tucson, RP looked for confirmations on their sponsorship but didn’t locate any. When they arrived at the Hilton on 10/11, they learned that no such “summit” was taking place and the phone number of the website had been disconnected. In addition to the package fee, the company sent $2600 in airline tickets, $900 for a hotel and $300 for a rental car. Hilton advised they had received approximately 45 calls from other potential conference attendees since April of 2011 and informed the callers there was no such event scheduled.