O’Brien County Sheriff Advises To Be On The Lookout For Scam Artists

Date posted - September 6, 2012

Primghar — The O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office is advising northwest Iowans to be aware of scam artists and how they work after they received two recent calls about possible scams.

The Sheriff’s Office advises that the first caller said she gets calls every other day from Seattle that she can get “free diabetic testing”. When she asked them what the name of their company was, they said “Diabetic Wellness”. They asked her for her name, Medicare number and social security number. The woman didn’t give any information, and that’s what the Sheriff’s Office advises others to do as well. People are advised not to give out any personal information to people who call them on the phone.

The second caller advised a couple of men came to his place and wanted to blacktop the caller’s driveway. The vehicle was reported to be a white GMC. The man who came to the caller’s door was about 30 years old. He stated he was going to get his boss and they would be back. The caller advised he does not want to have his driveway blacktopped and did not give the person any money.

Sheriff Michael Anderson advises that residents who have these types of callers or visitors to their door should not readily give out personal information. He advises that if an unknown work crew such as a blacktop crew comes to your door asking for work, he’d like you to call the Sheriff’s Office or Police Department to allow law enforcement to check them out to determine if they are legitimate businesses. Anderson says sometimes the work done is subpar or the costs are higher than if a local legitimate business were to have done the work. If residents can get license plates or photo identification information that would be even better, he says.

In any case, Anderson says feel free to call your local law enforcement for help, especially if something feels wrong.