Police Warn the Public about Increase in Various Fraud Scams

Published on May 01, 2024

Date: May 1, 2024
Incident Type: Fraud alert
Location: All zones
Summary:

Officers with the Pittsburgh Police Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU) are alerting the public about an uptick in fraudulent financial schemes.

The most recent one targeted a business owner in the city who was contacted by someone claiming to be from "Publisher's Clearing House" in relation to claiming a prize. The victim sent $125,000 dollars using cashier's checks to various addresses before calling 9-1-1 when he realized it was a hoax.

Another popular ploy is sometimes called the "grandparents scam," variations of which mainly target senior citizens by telling them a grandchild or loved one is in jail, in an accident, or otherwise in some type of trouble that requires them to send money immediately.

Just this week in the Pittsburgh area, a couple was contacted by a scammer by phone who made them believe all of their accounts and investments had been compromised and they were instructed to download an application so the caller could "remote in" to the victim's computer to fix the problem. Thankfully, they realized it was a fraudulent call before their all of accounts were nearly liquidated.

It should be noted that many of these scams do not have the same method of operating and often do not originate from within the country.

Police are providing the following tips to avoid being cheated out of your money:

• If a phone call seems unusual or unlikely, it probably is. When in doubt, hang up immediately and call your bank or financial institution directly to a phone number provided on a bank statement or official bank website, never from an email link.
• Banks will never ask for PIN numbers or one-time access codes over the phone.
• Avoid answering or block calls from repetitive unknown, or blocked numbers.
• Don't rely on caller ID. Sophisticated scammers can spoof phone numbers to make it look like your bank.
• Never divulge personal or private account information over the phone, email, or text to unknown people.
• Don't click on unsolicited emails or text messages where the sender is not familiar to you.

We are more susceptible to digital and online fraud as we do more and more over text and email every day. Scammers continually evolve their techniques to avoid authorities. Please report fraudulent calls, emails, and text schemes to 9-1-1 immediately.

Reporting PIO: Cara Cruz

2024-05-01
PIO@pittsburghpa.gov