CARLISLE, Pa. — Carlisle Police have seen an uptick in scam and fraud cases over the past month.
These recent scams have involved warrant and bail scams and overcharging of service claims.
Scammers will often call a victim posing as a relative or an attorney of a relative, police said. The scammer will falsely tell the victim the relative was involved in a car crash or other crime and is in need of bail money to get out of jail.
The scammer will ask the victim to obtain cash and transfer it to a courier who comes to the house. The scammer may also tell the victim to advice bank tellers the money is for home remodeling projects or other legitimate expenses.
The Carlisle Police Department has also seen an uptick in scammers posing as law enforcement officers. The scammer will advise the victim that a relative has an active warrant. Scammers may ask for cash or gift cards from the victim.
Allegedly, the scammers will try to keep the victim on the phone and make statements to them that the gift cards must be purchased immediately or the arrest warrant will not be canceled.
Another scam involves the scammer posing as a business service provider. They will tell the victim that they have been overcharged for a service and that the victim has to reimburse the business by purchasing gift cards.
Scammers may also tell the victim to download computer programs that allow the scammer to take control of the victim's computer.
Police are emphasizing that you should not provide gift card numbers and pin codes to anyone over the phone. Law enforcement authorities will never ask for payments over the phone or by purchasing gift cards.
You should not provide cash payments to strangers and do not download any programs from unsolicited callers.
Call and verify the status of relatives prior to making any purchases at the request of the caller.
Police have advised that you attempt to collect any phone numbers, business names, or email addresses of the caller and report them incident to local police.
