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Batavia PD warns of Dominican Republic 'police' scam

By Howard B. Owens

Press release:

The Batavia Police Department is investigating a telemarketing scam where an “Officer” claiming to be a member of a Police Department in the Dominican Republic has your relative (actual relative name used) in custody. The “Officer” explains your relative is in trouble and needs court costs, legal fees, fines and hospital bills paid, before they are released from a Dominican Republic Jail or allowed to leave the country. The “Officer” then has your inconsolable “relative” placed on the phone to beg for your assistance. The “Officer” advises the only way they accept payment for the debt is with iTunes Gift Cards over the phone.

The Batavia Police Department would like to remind the community during this holiday season to be mindful of this or similar telemarketing scams. Anyone who suspects they have been contacted by this or similar “Officers” are encouraged to file a report at www.IC3.gov or contact the NYS Attorney General’s Office to make a report.

jeff saquella

lol...so when they put your inconsolale "relative" on the phone to beg for your help......do you think you would recognize their voice??......if anybody falls for this then they deserve to be taken

Dec 5, 2015, 3:38pm Permalink
Rich Richmond

A while back I received an e-mail from a friend who was supposedly stranded in another country and needed money. They took over his computer without his knowledge and accessed his e-mail accounts and all the contacts contained within.

It was obvious that it was written by a non-native English speaking person and I ignored it. I did contact by buddy though and it was then he discovered he couldn’t access anything on his computer. It cost him plenty to straighten things out.

One telephone scam going on now from India and Pakistan are computer techs claiming you have a virus on your computer.

Dec 5, 2015, 4:14pm Permalink
Daniel Jones

Rick - That scam you mentioned with Indian/Pakistani computer 'techs' sadly targets senior citizens who are not as tech savvy. To anyone reading this, Microsoft will never cold call you regarding a vulnerability on your device.

Dec 5, 2015, 5:18pm Permalink
George Richardson

In the 1960's we used to say: " Hello, is your daddy at home? No? Ok, when he gets home please tell him that his boss just called and that he is fired. Will you do that? You will? Well ok then."
We did a pretty good Wally Cleaver imitation and it was fun. Nobody's daddy actually killed himself because he thought he was fired and it was fun. Getting dumb people to send you Itune cards sounds like even more fun. I only accept prepaid Visa these days, too many crooks want to cheat me when I try to cheat them.

Dec 5, 2015, 6:33pm Permalink
Irene Will

I've succeeded in stopping almost all of these robocalls. I ask them to "hold on a minute" --- amd then put the phone down in front of the tv speaker and leave it there. After awhile I go back amd they're gone. Most of them don't call back again.

Dec 6, 2015, 6:59am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

I like Irene's approach. For these scammers, there's still an economic cost and profit motive ... in other words, it's a business, an illegal business, but a business, just the same. That means waste cuts into profits. Just like any legit boiler room, making "sales" is based on numbers. You want to make X number of calls per hour to talk to Y number of people in the hopes of closing Z number of deals. It's all percentages. The key is to make as many X calls as you can because you're only going to reach so many Y, and how many Y you close depends on salesmenship skills. Make your X number each hour and you're going to make money.

However, if the Ys (you and mean) waste your time, you're going to have less time for X. Fewer calls, harder to make a profit.

So the more time we collectively waste (crowdsourcing) of scam callers, the less profitable it is for them to make calls, the less profitable, the harder it is for them to continue doing it.

Unless the call comes in at a really inconvenient time, I'd say, chat um up, make them think they're going to close a deal. Scam them right back, so to speak. Make them waste time and they have less time to scam the less savvy.

Dec 6, 2015, 10:24am Permalink
Kyle Couchman

lol I have fun with the "Hello I am calling from Windows and our server indicates your computer is having a virus" people in a similar fashion...

Dec 6, 2015, 11:25am Permalink
Irene Will

The other thing I've done is to record the three tones you get when you dial and get a disconnected number and then put those tones on at the beginning of the recording on my answering machine. Most of those robocall things RECOGNIZE those tones and hang up as soon as they 'hear' them. I hardly EVER get any robocall messages on my answering machine anymore, either.

Dec 7, 2015, 7:49am Permalink
tom hunt

I have learn to recognize the sound the phone switch makes as it switches you from the robot calling computer to a live human. I hang up the phone immediately.

Dec 9, 2015, 6:59am Permalink

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