The Villager Newspaper Online Your Community News – Cleveland's Westshore
Westlake Police report a spike in fraud reports;
Westlake fraud reports:
-On 3/2/20 a resident reported that someone in Glen Allen, VA bought a Nintendo Switch using her Amazon account and associated Visa Debit Card. Someone else from Media, OH also tried to purchase a Razor scooter through the compromised Amazon account. The victim was able to close the accounts and report the incident to Amazon.
– A Westlake resident reported that sometime on 3/4/20 a “Jordan Wilson” had contacted her regarding a computer virus and potentially compromised personal identifying information. The fraudster talked the victim into buying $5000 in gift cards to pay for services to clear the computer of the malware. The victim was out the money for the cards.
-On 3/5/20 a resident reported that he was a victim of a fraud. The citizen received a phone call from a male who said that he was an agent for the US Marshals Service and that the victim had a warrant for his arrest in Texas for drug trafficking. The fake agent told the victim that to clear up the warrant, and not have his funds frozen, he would have to withdraw cash from his account and buy gift cards. Once the gift card numbers were read to the perpetrator, the victim realized they were defrauded.
“NOTE: these are just the incidents for which we took full police reports,” report Police. “ There were several other calls received by citizens who did not fall for the various scams. We placed a reminder on our Facebook:
FRAUD ALERT!!
Westlake citizens have been receiving fraud calls today. If you receive a call or voicemail from someone pretending to be from the US Marshals Service or indicating that your Social Security Number has been compromised please do not call them back – or just hang up if you answer the call. The fraudster callers are using scare tactics to get people to give up their personal information. ***DO NOT GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFO TO ANYONE ON AN UNSOLICITED PHONE CALL OR EMAIL. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES WILL NOT CONTACT YOU AND ASK FOR YOUR BANK ACCOUNT OR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER INFORMATION. DO NOT PAY FOR WARRANTS OR TAX BILLS WITH GIFT CARDS….THIS IS ALWAYS A SCAM!!***
