Franklin state police aren’t sure how a reported telephone scam that an elderly Seneca couple fell victim to works.
The couple were “100% sure” that the voice they heard over the phone asking for money to pay for legal fees in New York was that of their grandson, said Adam Haun, the state trooper who is investigating the case.
The couple ended up paying the scammer $62,500 before they spoke to their grandson who told them he was never in New York and had no legal troubles, police said.
Police are still investigating, and McGee said police have a lot of theories.
McGee said phone scams can be hard to trace. Some calls are international, and other callers use local numbers to trick people into picking up the phone, McGee said.
Caller ID is no longer reliable as scam calls have become more sophisticated, McGee said.
Anyone who suspects they have received a scam call should hang up immediately and not give the caller any information, McGee said.
She also said there are voice changing apps and background noise generating apps available online, and one area of concern with these voice changing apps is online gaming.
McGee cautioned that children and teens could be talking to someone over the internet that sounds like their peer, but in reality they are talking to an adult who is using a voice changing app to sound like a youth.
“When you use technology there is no 100% guarantee of who you are talking to,” McGee said. “With technology there are no limits to what scammers come up with.”
She said Facebook, videos and face-time are all potential places where scammers could steal information.
Scams can come over the phone, online or through social media, such as Facebook Messenger, as well as through the mail.
Earlier this week, residents in Rocky Grove and Franklin received letters inviting them to join a neighborhood social network.
He pointed out that the return address had a zip code for Buffalo, Wyoming, though the rest of the address used local street names.
Wenner said that if the information on the envelope was false, the information in the letter would also be false. He strongly advised that everyone communicate with their neighbors the old fashioned way – face to face.
Precautions that McGee said a person can take to protect their information include watching their bank account activity closely, getting a free credit report once a year, changing privacy settings to make them more secure, changing passwords regularly and not sharing passwords with anyone.
She also said identity protection services are an option.
Anyone who believes they have been the victim of a scam should report it to the police, McGee said.
In addition, anyone victimized by an internet scam can file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a government site that tracks scams, by going to ic3.gov.
“Everyone should exercise extreme caution when using technology,” McGee said.
