By Mary O’KEEFE

Scams are cyclical. There may be a rash of calls concerning IRS payments needing to be made or threats of utilities being turned off due to false claims surrounding a lack of payment. CVW wants to remind readers once again that if something feels wrong or seems suspicious, take time to verify.

“There is a huge variety of [scams],” said Sgt. Brian Young, Glendale Police Dept. – Financial Crimes Unit.

Lately a lot of scam calls concerned Glendale Water and Power. Scammers would call residents claiming to represent GWP and threaten to shut off their power because a bill hadn’t been paid. The victims who received the fraudulent calls are surprised because they either thought their bill was paid in full or had made arrangements to make payment. The scammer on the other end of the phone call can at times be aggressive with their threats, often causing the victims to feel a false sense of urgency.

Young added that in recent scams the victims have been told to pay the bill via gift cards or crypto currency like bitcoin.

Even though the crypto currency machines have huge signs warning people not to send currency to someone they don’t know, people still do it, he said.

There are other scams that are investment-type crimes that fool people into thinking they are investing in legitimate businesses.

“[Scammers] will have a fraudulent website where people will invest a little bit of money, see a small return and then the suspect will have the [victim] put larger amounts in,” Young said.

So an initial supposed investment of $100 could yield $1,000, which the scammers will then tell investors if they invest another $10,000 they could get close to $100,000. The victims then give the scammer $10,000 but don’t see a return. That may be when they realize it is a scam.         

In some cases these suspects will work to get their victims to continue to invest, even after they lost some money, promising more money coming to them in the end. That promise is, of course, empty and the victims can lose their life savings.

“For the scams that [reference a] businesses [like GWP], instead of calling the number they are given, residents should call the number that is on their bill,” Young advised.

Another ploy is when scammers “spoof” a phone number. For example, the caller identification that comes up on the victim’s phone may show the business that is supposedly calling, but the caller is actually not related to that business.

Scammers often use fear and intimidation to get victims to comply with whatever they are asking for.

“Or they sometimes use kindness,” Young said.

Suspects can tell their victims they understand their concern and “want to help them” by reducing the initial charge to a lower charge when in fact the victims owe nothing.

Young said most of the time the scammers are from out of the country, which makes it almost impossible for law enforcement to find and arrest them. Regardless, prospective victims should call law enforcement if they have received a phone call or contact from someone they feel is suspicious or if they have a question about a contact that has been made.

Young said he would rather have someone call concerned about a scam than to receive a call after they have been victimized.