It’s considered an epidemic in some law enforcement and state and federal consumer protection watchdog circles. Call it what you want to – swindle, scam, fraud – but according to the latest data it’s costing Americans (B) billions of dollars a year, according to the latest report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC reported last year that losses nationwide in 2023 totaled $10.3 billion, up from $8.9 billion in reported losses a year earlier.
And one recent 24-hour period in Gainesville puts an exclamation point on what the FTC has reported: Gainesville Police say that between 8:00 a.m. February 19 and 8:00 a.m. February 20, four reports of scams, fraud, swindles, etc., were taken which the victims said cost them $11,702.
Earlier in the month as 97.5 Glory FM reported at the time, Gainesville Police took a report from a company that said it lost nearly $100,000 to a scammer. Police spokesman Kevin Holbrook wrote in an email at the time, “called claiming to be bank, requesting information to be verified, used that info to transfer $98,000.”
That same week, Holbrook said, swindlers took a 92-year-old woman for the $3,000. “…callers advised subject they had locked her computer down, requested gift cards be bought in exchange,” he said in an email.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The daily reports from both city police and the Hall County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) are usually littered with such reports though very few reach individual totals such as the ones cited here.
Law enforcement in Hall and surrounding counties are constantly issuing “scam alerts,” trying to warn citizens about any number of attempts to get their money. There are funeral scams, jury duty scams, IRS scams, a grandchild is in jail and needs bail money, and it goes on and on. Some of the attempts are made by phone, others via the Internet.
One of the latest was reported by the Hall County Sheriff’s Office just a few days ago:
“Hall County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit deputies are out with a warning about a newer phone scam. Scammers 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱. Here are the basics:
• Scammer calls family member of an arrested individual claiming to be from the Hall County Sheriff’s Office (scammer uses an actual HCSO name they’ve grabbed off our websites or social media.)
• Scammer, posing as a deputy, indicates they can assist the loved one with starting the bond process for the arrestee, by taking payment through Apple Pay, Venmo, Cash App, etc.
• Victim makes payment, thinking their loved one’s bond has been made.
• In some cases, the victim finds out they’ve been scammed when their loved one calls from jail, asking for help with bond.
𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 – HCSO will not call anyone and solicit bond payment over the phone.
Bond amounts for specific inmates can be found at https://hallcounty.policetocitizen.com/Inmates/Catalog.
Information on inmate bonds is at https://www.hallcounty.org/236/Inmate-Accounts-Bonds“
Need more information/guidance on how to become a victim of a wide array of con artists, the Better Business Bureau has put together a Scam Prevention Guide which you can access here: Scam Prevention