Three Otter Tail County residents fall victim to scam attempts
News | Published on November 27, 2024 at 1:47pm EST | Author: henningmaster
0Sheriff’s office reminds residents to not give personal information out over the phone
By Tom Hintgen
Otter Tail County Correspondent
The county sheriff department, on Nov. 20, reported that three country residents became victims of scams.
The first victim, reported to sheriff deputies on at 11:12 a.m. on Nov. 19, involved a county resident who gave out the last four of his Social Security numbers to a scammer. The county resident had received a call claiming that a large purchase from Amazon was made in his name and was told that he needed to provide personal information to cancel the purchase.
The good news is that, as of the morning of Nov. 20, no money had been lost. The county resident was advised by sheriff deputies to contact his nearest Social Security office, his banks and to monitor his credit.
The second scam was reported to sheriff deputies at 1:59 p.m. on Nov. 19. A resident in Underwood lost $400 while being scammed. The scammer said he was a representative of the county resident’s bank, stating that the Underwood resident needed to call an 800 number. Personal bank accounts have been frozen and the county resident was advised by sheriff deputies on how to proceed with this issue.
The third scam was reported to sheriff deputies at 3:07 p.m. on Nov. 19. A county resident was scammed out of $500, and the scammer gained remote access to her PC and bank accounts.
Deputies said the scam victim received an email from someone she thought was a Paypal representative who indicated she had issues with her Paypal account. The county resident clicked on a link and received a call from the scammer who directed her to purchase a $500 gift card, submit the card information and to also allow for access to her PC and bank accounts.
The county resident was advised by sheriff deputies to contact her bank’s fraud department and was also advised that her computer was compromised. The sheriff office says this type of scam oftentimes originates from outside the United States and makes it very difficult if not impossible for U.S. investigator abilities to track down these scammers.