Police Beat

Beware of Various Scams

Capt. Denise Schmitt

Of growing concern to the members of Taraval Station are the opportunists who are out there looking to separate you from your hard-earned money by taking advantage of your good nature. We're talking about "confidence games," in the many and varied ways they are attempted. All con games have a common element: they offer a chance to make money, help someone in need or resolve a problem with what seems like a small amount of up-front costs or information.

Mexican Lottery

One such scam which is seeing a resurgence in the City is called "The Mexican Lottery." The suspect approaches a potential victim and claims to possess a winning Mexican Lottery ticket. Unfortunately, he is unable to cash the ticket because he has no identification as is in the country illegally. The suspect will provide a phone number to the "lottery official" who can verify the winning numbers and the procedure for claiming the prize.

If the victim offers to help cash the ticket, the suspect either offers to sell the ticket for a smaller amount, or asks for some cash up front as "good faith money" before he receives any winnings from the victim. The victim gives some money for the ticket which is, as it turns out, not worth a dime.

This scam is being successfully used in the City where so many people are aware that immigration issues can be very frightening. Varieties on the scam include the suspect claiming to be shy of 18 years of age and being unable to claim the ticket.

At Your Doorstep

Door-to-door solicitations are not uncommon in the Taraval District. This includes people soliciting for a charitable organization, selling magazine subscriptions, offering to perform handyman work or painting addresses on curbs. These are all activities which are either illegal or regulated in the city's Municipal Police Code, thus requiring a permit. They are frequently, though not always, a cover used by criminals trying to scope out a neighborhood for burglary targets.

Recently, a senior resident was approached at his home on Denslowe Drive by two "handymen/contractors," who pointed out some small repairs needed on the gutters and roof. With the heavy rains coming, they saw dire consequences to the house and offered to seal things up right then for a small amount of cash. The resident agreed and opened his garage while the handymen set to work.

While the work progressed, two female accomplices arrived and used the opportunity to burglarize the house. A canvas of the neighborhood revealed that a new black Chevy pickup truck had been seen by neighbors in the area with the two female accomplices seated inside while the men walked around.

If you see individuals in your neighborhood making such solicitations, ringing doorbells or walking door to door, call the non-emergency police dispatch number at 553-0123 and provide a location and description of the individuals and any involved vehicles. Officers can investigate and identify such people to ensure they are acting lawfully.

On-Line Internet Scams

The Internet is often the start of con games and a launching point for identity theft. Phishing is a modern scam where an e-mail arrives which is formatted exactly like e-mail from a legitimate company that many people commonly have a credit or debit card on file to cover automatic payments, such as a cable company or newspaper.

The e-mail will describe some billing or procedural problem and will ask you to "verify" some personal information at their Web site, to which a link is provided. This few minutes of your time is "necessary to ensure no service interruption." The Web site itself is also fake but designed to look exactly like the business' Web site. The site will contain an HTML form to complete asking for personal information, such as credit card numbers. When the form is completed and submitted to this fake Web site, the swindler is off to the races with credit card or banking information.

A similar scam was perpetrated on a resident of Madrone Avenue in January when the resident saw a vehicle advertised for sale on Auto Trader's Web site. After contacting the seller, he made arrangements to transfer the funds via "MSN Auto" directly to a bank account out of the country. The money was transferred and the vehicle and seller disappeared.

If you are going to do business over the Internet, please be sure to verify that the site you are using has a real connection to the company you want. At all times, protect your personal identifying information and be wary of opportunities which require large sums of cash up front.

Capt. Denise Schmitt is the commanding officer at the Taraval Police Station.