By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
At least once a day, Bowling Green Police Division receives a report from a local resident cheated out of money by scammers.
Some suspect and stop the scam before they are out of any money. Others end up losing thousands of dollars, with little hope of recovering any of it.
They feel pressured into sending money intended to rescue a family member from jail, to prevent revealing photos from being posted, to avoid arrest by the FBI, or to clean their computer of supposed viruses.
It’s not just senior citizens who are prey to the fraud.
In the past month in Bowling Green, scammers targeted tech savvy college students, middle-aged educated professionals and retired community members.
“You would think people of our generation may be more susceptible,” BGPD Lt. Dan Mancuso said. “But it can happen to anybody.”
“No one is immune to it,” BGPD Lt. Adam Skaff said.
The scams typically start with fraudulent contact over the phone, emails, texts or pop-ups on computers.
“The technology gives people access,” Mancuso said.
Government doesn’t want gift cards
A common bit of advice from BGPD is to not fall for requests to send gift cards.
“No one from the government needs a Walmart, Apple, GooglePlay or Amazon gift card,” Skaff said. “No one is ever going to legitimately send you to Walmat to get gift cards.”
But victims of scams often react under duress, believing…
