New wave of phone scams on the rise

LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - A new wave of scams is targeting the most vulnerable in our community.

That’s why the Laredo Police Department says they are warning the public before they become victims.

“We’ve had people be taken for two, five, seven, and in one extreme case over 50,000 dollars worth of money to these scam artists.”

In the past two weeks, eight scam cases have been reported to the Laredo Police Department and they are not the usual phone scams.

"Now the new one is going to local store and going to bitcoin ATM’s where they’re actually depositing money and giving the account information to the person on the phone. "

According to the department, many of these scammers are from out of the country and once you lose your money, it’s hard if not impossible to get it back.

Not only do people get phone calls asking them to go to bitcoin ATM’s, but they are also receiving phone calls from “other entities pretending to be federal departments like the IRS.”

Scammers go so far as to impersonate law enforcement, for example the Laredo Police Department. By using entities like them, people fall into the scam and believe they are getting called for real debt.

“They can actually copy or duplicate, it’s called spoofing legitimate law enforcement numbers.”

Police say the reason scammers are succeeding is because they’re putting fear into people’s heads and it makes them be willing to give up their savings.

The Laredo Police Department recommends that we let the older community be aware of these scams since most are not connected to the World Wide Web.

The Laredo Police Department says that the more this happens in our community, the more it will be targeted so that is why it is important that citizens do not fall for these fraudulent calls.

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