Residents report phone scams

Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 12, 2016

Local residents are reporting a multitude of phone scams in recent days.

River Falls Mayor Pro Tem Mattie Freeney was one of those.

“I just got a call from a computer scammer who told me that they had received calls about problems with my computer,” she said. “I told him that I did not own a computer, and asked how was that possible.”

Freeney reported that the person responded with a sexually-explicit slur.

Freeney said the caller-ID for the number 859-846-9189 shows up “Gibson Kevin &.”

A quick Google search shows a multitude of complaints with the same storyline.

Local resident Daniel Bowers reported to The Star-News he had received the same scam, as well as one claiming to be the FBI.

“It said it was my final attempt to call them,” he said. “It’s just things that the FBI doesn’t do.”

Additionally, Bowers said his mother received a call from someone claiming to be from Medicare.

The Bowers reached out to the Star-News in hopes it would combat an elderly person being taken advantage of.

The Opp Police Department this week said it had received two different complaints from residents who reported that a male subject claiming to be from the Verizon Cell Phone Company contacted them by phone

According to OPD Chief Mike McDonald, the person tells the victim that they need a payment or the company is going to turn off the service.

“The subject tells the victim that they need the victim to provide personal information to them along with their information regarding the bank that they use as well account numbers,” he said. “On one occasion, a citizen provided this information to this subject and within 24 hours, the citizen received notice from their bank that a man located in Atlanta was attempting to withdraw $9,000 from the citizen’s bank account.”

McDonald advised people to keep their personal information to themselves.

“Once again, we strongly advise you to not provide personal information, credit card information or banking information to anyone over the telephone,” he said. “