Northwest Iowa — Every few weeks we tell you about scams that are being perpetrated here in northwest Iowa. This week, we have some new ones to tell you about that have been attempted on folks right here in northwest Iowa.
Sheldon Police Chief Lyle Bolkema says a couple of new scams have been reported to the Sheldon Police Department in recent days. He says the scammers are hard at work and continue to contact area residents in a variety of different ways.
The first incident occurred last week when a person received an e-mail from someone whom she believed to be her boss. The e-mail had her boss’ name as the sender but she failed to realize that the e-mail wasn’t from her boss’ work e-mail, but rather from a G-mail account. Bolkema says in the email, the scammer posing as her “boss” requested the employee obtain three I-tunes cards from Hy-Ve,e and load $100 on each card. The fake “boss” stated that she was out of town at a meeting and didn’t have access to a cell phone but that this was for something important that she needed the employee’s help with. The victim employee obtained the cards. Bolkema says she was then instructed to expose the code/number on the back of the card, photograph the cards, and e-mail that information to the scammer pretending to be her “boss”, and she did as requested. Bolkema says the employee later stopped at work and learned that her boss was not out of town, but rather was at work, and had not contacted her. The victim employee contacted both her credit card company and I-tunes and was able to recover $200 of her money. The additional $100 is gone. Bolkema says it should be noted that the business has it’s employee’s e-mails listed online.
The second incident occurred on July 4th with a person who lives in the rural Sheldon area. Bolkema says the person received a Facebook messenger message from someone from Orange City with whom she is friends on facebook. This person asked her if she had received her money yet as she was on a list of persons who were going to be receiving $50-thousand due to winning a promotional prize. This same “Facebook Friend” reportedly advised the Sheldon person that she had received her $50-thousand already and that the Sheldon woman should call a number to receive her winnings. Bolkema says the Sheldon person believed this, since she was friends with the Orange City woman, and knew her to trustworthy. According to Bolkema, the Sheldon woman contacted the number and was given instructions to send $550 via Western Union to cover some taxes and fees related to the winnings. She was cautioned not to disclose to anyone what she was doing and she was given a two hour time limit to get the money sent. Bolkema says the Sheldon individual was unable to withdraw more than $400 with their ATM cards so they went to Hy-Vee in an attempt to get the additional $150, and wire the money. An alert Hy-Vee employee told the potential victim that they believed this was a scam. Bolkema says they then phoned the woman from Orange City, who informed them that she had not sent them any messages and had not won any money, either. Fortunately, no money was lost in this case.
Sheldon folks aren’t the only ones being targeted by scammers these days, the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office says scammers claiming to be with Law Enforcement, and calling from out of area phone numbers, have been contacting individuals to verify their personal information, such as their date of birth and social security numbers. If you believe you have received a call like this one, you may verify if the person works for any of the local agencies by calling the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheldon’s Chief Bolkema says that, as older scam attempts become less successful, the thieves are changing their techniques to new and different methods in an attempt to steal money from you. If you are unsure whether or not something is true or acceptable, contact your local law enforcement agency. DO NOT THINK FOR A MINUTE THAT THIS COULD NOT HAPPEN TO YOU. Both of the Sheldon victims are intelligent folks who would have never believed that they could fall prey to this sort of thing.
Remember what your mom told you when you were a kid, “If something seems too good to be true, it most likely is.”
