A woman contacted the Graham County Sheriff’s Office to report a scam she fell for. The woman said that she had applied for a loan and a person named David Wilson called her. The man told her that he was from Capital Loan and called from a phone number that was later found to be fake.
The woman said that the fraudulent loan officer told her to get some gift cards for $225 and send them to him. She also gave him a friend’s bank account number that he was supposedly going to deposit the money into. But instead of depositing the money, the scammer withdrew $1,000 from the account. The account only had $40.00 at the time, which left the friend’s bank balance at negative $953.84.
How To Avoid a Scam
Block unwanted calls and text messages. Take steps to block unwanted calls and to filter unwanted text messages.
Don’t give your personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn’t expect. Honest organizations won’t call, email, or text to ask for your personal information, like your Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers.
If you get an email or text message from a company you do business with and you think it’s real, it’s still best not to click on any links. Instead, contact them using a website you know is trustworthy. Or look up their phone number. Don’t call a number they gave you or the number from your caller ID.
Resist the pressure to act immediately. Honest businesses will give you time to make a decision. Anyone who pressures you to pay or give them your personal information is a scammer.
Know how scammers tell you to pay. Never pay someone who insists that you can only pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, a payment app, or a gift card. And never deposit a check and send money back to someone.
Stop and talk to someone you trust. Before you do anything else, tell someone — a friend, a family member, a neighbor — what happened. Talking about it could help you realize it’s a scam.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has articles on their website on how to spot and avoid scams. If you do fall victim to a scam, report it to the FTC.
