City of Laredo issued the following announcement on Oct. 7.
The Laredo Police Department and the City of Laredo is notifying our community regarding a wide spread scam affecting the entire nation. We are asking everyone to help us share the information regarding this developing crime trend happening here in our city.
Just recently, we continue to receive reports that there are individuals randomly calling unsuspecting victims and posing as the I.R.S., debt collectors and local law enforcement. These calls are harassing in nature and some go to the extreme of making threats towards the unsuspecting victim in order to get immediate payment over the phone. In some cases these extortionists have copied local law enforcement phone numbers on caller IDs (spoofing) which furthers the unsuspecting victim into thinking that the call is legitimate.
The new trend is the incorporation of bitcoin ATM deposits as payments for these false collections. Bitcoin is the world's largest digital currency that was created in 2009. Several local residents have filed reports involving this type of phone scam that requires the victim to deposit money into a bitcoin ATM to clear up alleged “active warrants” the scammers said they have. The scammers call the unsuspecting victim and tell them they have active warrants and even go to the extreme making threats of arrest. The victims were then told by the scammers to take cash to a local bitcoin machine in order to clear up the warrant. Bitcoin machines, also known as bitcoin ATMs, can often be found in local convenience stores. These calls are made through sophisticated international crime cells from various foreign countries which make it impossible for local law enforcement jurisdictions to prosecute.
Police highly recommend to STOP and THINK before anyone reacts to a threatening or intimidating call. Law Enforcement will never ask for payments or personal information over the phone and should never be given to a random voice on the phone.
Do your own research before making any payments to anyone. Many of these callers will try to make you go and electronically pay through electronic check, gift cards and now the use of bitcoin ATMs. In many of the common scams, the fraud caller will try to lure the victim into heading to a local store, and purchase high amount music cards or some other type of electronic payment. Once the pin code to that gift card is transferred to the person on the phone, then that payment is gone forever and impossible to recover. With Bitcoin ATMs, the victim creates an account and then physically deposits money into the bitcoin machine. The scammers will then ask the victim to send the account information along with the account pin number or send them a picture of the information. Once that information reaches the scammer they will withdraw the funds from anywhere in the world.
As always, your safety is our priority. If this happens to you, please report it. The Laredo Police Department non-emergency number is (956)795-2800.
Original source can be found here.
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