{"id":7625,"date":"2011-05-09T04:39:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T09:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=7625"},"modified":"2011-05-09T04:39:46","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T09:39:46","slug":"delphos-police-chief-details-local-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/05\/09\/delphos-police-chief-details-local-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Delphos police chief details local scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Wert independent\/<\/strong>Delphos Police information<\/em><\/p>\n

DELPHOS \u2013 Delphos Police Chief Kyle Fittro put out a news release this week listing some of the more common scams seen in the area as a whole. Those scams include the following:<\/p>\n

Scam 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one has been around a long time and is still very prevalent in Delphos and the surrounding area. The intended victim receives a letter in the mail, with a check in the victim\u2019s name attached to the letter. The letter proclaims the intended victim has won a contest, sweepstakes, drawing, inheritance, etc. If the check is for a few thousand, the letter instructs the person to cash the check and send a \u201csmall fee\u201d back to the scammer for \u201cdocument processing\u201d or some other reason. The letter notes the intended victim keeps the majority of the money and sends the remaining amount to the scammer. A few days later the bank notifies the victim that the check was fraudulent. The victim must then return all the money, including the portion sent to the scammer. If the check is for a larger amount, a few hundred thousand up to millions, the letter instructs the intended victim to wire money to a location usually outside the country. The scammers claim this is a \u201cprocessing fee\u201d. Once the fee is paid, they say they will release the funds and allow the victim to cash the big check. Of course, after the person wires the money, the check is found to be fraudulent and the victim has just lost the money that was wired.<\/p>\n

Scam 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

This scam is very popular in Delphos right now. There are a few variations of this scam. The \u201cbase\u201d scam is as follows: A person, usually elderly, receives a phone call. The call is from the scammer. The scammer claims to be their grandson, granddaughter or family member of some sort. The scammer is crying and claims to have been in a bad car accident, or otherwise injured, in another country. The scammer claims that the country they are in (usually Canada or Mexico) will not accept their health insurance, credit cards etc. and they need money wired to them for medical care. Usually the victim will realize the scammer does not sound like their grandson\/granddaughter and asks the scammer about this. The scammer will claim they have received some sort of facial injury that has caused them to talk \u201cfunny.\u201d The victim then wires the money as instructed and has been effectively scammed.<\/p>\n

Remember that many people have common names such as John, Robert, Sara, Jill, etc. The scammers use this to their advantage. If they call enough people claiming to be John, they will quickly find a victim that truly does have a son or grandson named John. Sometimes they will refuse to give a name. They just keep repeating this is your grandson, granddaughter, son, daughter etc.<\/p>\n

Variation — <\/strong>Very similar to the one above except the request for money comes through an email or other form of electronic communication. The request to wire money is the same, as are the results.<\/p>\n

Variable — <\/strong>Very similar to the one above, except the scammer claims they are in jail and need money. They will again claim facial injury to account for the unfamiliar voice. They may claim they were assaulted, had their nose broken, were wrongfully jailed for the incident and need bailed out.<\/p>\n

Scam 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one is somewhat similar to the one above, but more devious. Here is the classic scenario. The scammer finds the family who has a family member that is legitimately out of the country, usually for things like spring break in Cancun, military service, work or recreation in general. Sometimes the scammer has \u201cinside information\u201d as to family whereabouts and sometimes they just call enough families until they get it right. The scammer will call posing as a doctor, police officer or some other \u201cofficial\u201d. They will tell you that your relative has been injured in some terrible incident. They are badly hurt, but can be \u201csaved\u201d with appropriate medical care. The problem is the county they are in does not accept their health insurance, credit cards, debit cards etc. You may believe the caller because you do in fact have a family member in another country. The official insists you wire cash right away to provide medical care for your loved one. By this point, we all know how this one ends.<\/p>\n

A person may believe the scammer couldn\u2019t possibly put together the right pieces of information to come up with a credible cover story, but, if they call enough families at the appropriate time of year and claim their daughter was injured during spring break in Cancun, scammers will find a family that truly has a daughter vacationing in Cancun.<\/p>\n

Remember, scammers may make hundreds of calls a day. They only need a few \u201chits\u201d here and there to make a great deal of money.<\/p>\n

Scam 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

While perusing the classified section of a newspaper, intended victims come across a listing that catches their eye. Maybe it\u2019s golden retriever puppies, patio furniture, car parts or some other item. The intended victim calls the listed number or responds to the listed email address. A real person answers\/responds. The person is friendly and seems to be genuine. They claim to live out of state and claim to sell these items all over the country through the use of classified advertising. They send pictures of the item through email. They may even direct the intended victim to a website or social networking site to look at more photos. They converse through email and answer questions appropriately.<\/p>\n

They then instruct the victim to send payment, usually a wire transfer, to secure the item. Once they receive the money they say they will ship the item (yes, people ship dogs across country \u2026 in crates \u2026 overnight shipping).<\/p>\n

They get the money, but never ship the item. In fact, the item never existed at all. They just use stock photos of everyday items to convince the intended victim they actually have these items in their possession.<\/p>\n

Remember, most people do not advertise in out of state\/regional classifieds to sell everyday items such as patio furniture and puppies. Would a local resident spend money on classified ads in a California newspaper to sell used patio furniture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Van Wert independent\/Delphos Police information DELPHOS \u2013 Delphos Police Chief Kyle Fittro put out a news release this week listing some of the more common scams seen in the area as a whole. Those scams include the following: Scam 1 This one has been around a long time and is still very prevalent in Delphos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 21:38:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}