Lenawee County sheriff: Watch out for phone scams

ADRIAN — Have you been receiving lots of phone calls lately with the Caller ID showing they're from a town where you don't know anyone? Maybe your cellphone has even flagged the calls as "scam likely"?

The best thing to do, Lenawee County Sheriff Troy Bevier said in a recent post on Facebook , is to let "unknown calls go to voicemail, criminals flourish by putting victims under pressure. Also, legitimate agencies DO NOT ask for gift cards nor threaten you with arrest."

The sheriff's office reported receiving reports of an increasing number of scams costing people thousands of dollars.

One of the most common phone scams, Bevier said in an interview, involves a scammer asking their target to send money by way of a gift card.

"It made me think that, OK, we're still falling for gift card scams, which is not a good thing," Bevier said.

He's hoping that posting regular alerts will remind people to be careful.

Another concern Bevier has is the use of artificial intelligence where a scammer could use a recording of his voice, perhaps from a radio interview, to create a message trying to get someone to send money.

"I'm worried about the rise in people spoofing your voice," Bevier said. "…My voice is out there, and I never want someone to use my voice to tell someone, hey, if you don't send me gift cards I'm going have someone take you to jail. We never want that to happen."

That's not just something that might happen in more populous communities.

"A lot of times … (scammers) start with smaller agencies because they figure people won't follow up on it," he said.

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Coercion, such as a threat of arrest, is a common tactic to get someone, particularly if they seem older, to fall for the scam, Bevier said. One scam that's still going around is the "grandma" scam, where a criminal will call and pretend to be someone's grandchild and tell them they need money to get out of jail or some other immediate legal problem.

According to the Better Business Bureau's 2023 " BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report ," the three most-reported scams made by phone involve phishing or social engineering, online purchases and debt collection.

In phishing and social engineering schemes, the report said, "scammers impersonate a trustworthy entity, such as a bank or mortgage company, and employ communications to mislead recipients into providing personal information that the scammer will use to gain access to bank accounts or steal recipients’ identity."

Phone scams also are most likely to use some kind of "negative situation to manipulate the targets, such as jail time for back taxes or news that a loved one is in trouble and needs help," the BBB report said.

The BBB surveyed people who reported a scam and found that what most helped them avoid losing money was a feeling that something wasn't right about the situation. Other cues or behaviors that helped avoid being victimized included researching the type of scam or offer, researching the background of the scammer, and knowing about the methods and behaviors of scammers in general.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian .

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County sheriff: Watch out for phone scams