Sheriff's deputy offers advice on combating telephone scams

Elderly, retirees normally targeted

EPHRATA — Certain Grant County residents could find themselves the target of telephone scams.

"It happens every so often," said John Turley, chief deputy for the Grant County sheriff's office, noting that he recently spoke to a local man whom "an outfit out of Mesa, Ariz.," had attempted to scam.

Turley said he instructed the man to give the outfit Turley's name and number when they were going to call back and provide the information to send money to, but had not received a call back.

Turley said there was no investigation; the individual who called him wanted some direction on what to do.

Turley said that fraudulent business scams normally target retirees, people on social security or in AARP.

The scams entice people by claiming that if the person sends money to an address or makes an arrangement via credit card, they will be entitled to many more dollars than what they send, Turley said.

"First of all, if they don't know who they're talking to, they shouldn't talk to them — it's by choice that anyone can carry on a conversation with anyone else," he said of precautions against scam operations that people can take. "A more sure bet would be never to give your credit card number out to anyone, only do business with reputable companies and anyone offering to give you more money than you can count by sending them money is probably up to no good."

Turley advised people with Caller ID who can get a telephone number to write the number down, and noted that a lot of companies call with no identification numbers available.

"If that's the case, there's no need to talk to those folks," he said. "They should stick with the people that they have always done business with and recognize as being true to form."

People who are given a telephone number are more than welcome to call the sheriff's office at 754-2011, extension 468, rather than phoning the dispatch center.

Telephone scams usually happen two to three times a year, Turley noted, adding that areas targeted in the past have included the Soap Lake area, or any area with retirees or people with pensions.

He cautioned that the scam operators have garnered information some way, and advised that people be aware that information used when filling out entries at fairs, or filling out coupons or surveys, will go into a national database.

"Any time (a person gives out their) name, telephone, address and such, it can be published," Turley said. "With the Internet nowadays, people can find people very easily."