Police are warning about several scams that have been reported by Big Island residents.
Police are warning about several scams that have been reported by Big Island residents.
A Keaau couple reported being the target of three telephone scams within two weeks. The first was a call to their cellphone claiming they won the Publishers’ Clearing House prize of several million dollars and someone would arrive in a couple of hours to deliver it. The area code showed the call originated from Jamaica.
The second apparent scam was a call to the couple’s home phone from a blocked number by a woman with a foreign accent who began to ask questions about the recipient’s computer.
The third scam was a late-night phone call from an Arkansas area code with a “mechanical female voice” claiming the couple’s Master Card was blocked. The recipient hung up the phone and then researched the scam and learned the next step is for the caller to ask for the recipient’s credit card number.
Police urge the public to be suspicious about requests for personal information via the telephone or by Internet and not to provide such information without independently verifying the request is legitimate.