{"id":2195,"date":"2016-02-11T10:17:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T18:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taraval.org\/?p=2195"},"modified":"2016-03-10T06:04:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T14:04:04","slug":"crime-prevention-tips-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/?p=2195","title":{"rendered":"Crime Prevention Tips \u2013 Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>I Need Help Scam<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">A\u00a0relative or friend\u00a0stating that she and her family were mugged in the some international city and needed help. Their wallets and credit cards were stolen. The email or phone call stated that the hotel wouldn\u2019t let them leave until the bill was paid. The\u00a0victim or friend would asked them to\u00a0wire money to them.\u00a0This of course was a scam to cheat someone out of money.\u00a0 The victim would reply back to the email or phone call. The victim would asked for verification that it was indeed the relative or friend and the crook used statements such as, \u201cof course it\u2019s me\u201d, \u201chow can you ask that\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This has happened in the Taraval District. The victims would actually wire money or purchase a money card, then tell the criminal the pin number. Once the criminal gets the pin number, the criminal can electronically transfer the money from the money card.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Grand Parent Scam<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> In this similar scam, a victim, usually elderly, receives a phone call from someone. The caller muffles his or her name, but clearly states that they are the grandson or granddaughter. The victim provides the name, and the caller pretends to be the grandson or granddaughter. The caller gives a similar story where they need money and ask the victim, not to tell mom or dad. The caller asks the victim to wire money or purchase a money card. If the victim does, they lose their money. The caller may actually call back months later and try again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Warrant for Your Arrest Scam<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> A victim receives a phone call from someone claiming to be a supervisor from the San Francisco Police Department, the San Francisco Sheriff\u2019s Department, Department of Homeland Security, IRS,\u00a0or some other government agency. The caller states that the victim has a warrant for his or her arrest. If the victim doesn\u2019t clear the warrant the victim will be arrested. The victim is told to buy a money card and give them the pin number. When the victim does this, he or she has just been scammed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>PG&amp;E Scam<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> A person receives a phone call from a person claiming to be from PG&amp;E. They tell the victim that their gas and electricity is going to be turned off immediately if they do not pay the overdue bill. They tell the victim to purchase a money card and give them the pin number.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Pigeon Drop Scam<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> A victim is approached by Criminal #1 who states that he or she found a large sum of money and asks for help. While they are speaking, Criminal #2 approaches them and tells them that he knows how they all can split the found money. Criminal #2 puts up good faith money. The victim is convinced to withdraw money from the bank so he can put up his portion of the good faith money. After the victim puts up his good faith money, the victim is allowed to hold the \u201cfound money\u201d. The criminals find a way to leave, but the victim is happy because he has the \u201cfound money\u201d and it is much more than the good faith money he put up. Unfortunately, when the victim looks closer at the \u201cfound money\u201d, he discovers that dollar bills are wrapped around newspaper to make it look like a large sum of money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Each of these scams has occurred in the Taraval Police District recently. Protect yourself and don\u2019t fall for these scams. If it\u2019s too good be true, it probably is. Verify who you are speaking with, but not with the person you are speaking with. Speak with another person about the request. It\u2019s not an emergency. A few hours wait or a few days wait won\u2019t hurt you, but can actually save you from being a victim.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I Need Help Scam A\u00a0relative or friend\u00a0stating that she and her family were mugged in the some international city and needed help. Their wallets and credit cards were stolen. The email or phone call stated that the hotel wouldn\u2019t let&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime_tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6524,"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions\/6524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taraval.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}