Seasons Greetings!
While Santa and his elves are busy making toys for little ones in the North Pole, we here at the UMTPD are busy tracking scams that once in a while tend to make their way into our community. Of course, we see our fair share of the typical IRS scams (someone purporting to be from the IRS or similar government agency demanding money and threatening to lock you up or deport you if you fail to comply), as well as golden oldies such as the Microsoft scam (someone calls to tell you that your computer is infected with a virus, and either asks for personal information or tries to hack into your computer). However, occasionally we see something different, and when we do, we try our best to keep the public informed.
Recently, an Upper Macungie business reported an attempted fraud. An employee advised that she had received an email from the president of her company giving her authorization to send money to another entity. In the email, which looked legitimate, the president provided her with a bank account and routing number to send the money (which in this case was a very large sum). After viewing the email, the employee contacted the company president who stated he had never wrote the email and never authorized such a transaction.
Certainly, not all of us have positions that involve wiring money on behalf of the boss, however, if the UMTPD saves even one person from making this critical mistake, then it most certainly was worth the time it took to compose this message. As in many of these scam attempts, my sources are telling me this scam originates overseas, which of course, makes it extremely difficult to track and make arrests.
As always, feel free to email me with your scam stories. I always enjoy hearing about residents outsmarting the bad guys!
Happy Holidays!
Respectfully,
Lt. Peter Nickischer
Criminal Investigations and Community Services Commander
