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Community Warning - Telephone Scams
By Ventura County Sheriff Department — Tuesday, February 4th, 2014
 Ventura County Sheriff's Department The Thousand Oaks Police Department is warning Ventura County residents of on-going telephone scams that have been targeting elderly residents or other susceptible victims. Thousand Oaks Police have seen an increasing number of telephone scams where the criminal calls a resident and informs them their family member is in jail in another country. The criminal pretends to be a law enforcement official and advises the victim they need to act quickly or their loved one’s safety may be in jeopardy. The majority of the fraudulent calls appear to originate from Canada. The fraudulent official requests money be “wired” via a money wire transfer company (i.e. Western Union or MoneyGram) to an overseas location (in particular, Latin American countries). Within a short period of time, the wired funds are collected by the suspects and the victim will have suffered a financial loss as a result of this telephone scam. Ventura County residents can protect themselves from this type of telephone scam by not proceeding with the transaction until having personally confirmed an emergency situation. This can easily be done by calling the family member and checking on his or her welfare. To learn more about how to protect yourself from fraud, please visit: Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Protection) www.ftc.gov Nature of Incident: Community Warning - Telephone Scams Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information, which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477). |
