COLUMBUS – Central Ohio residents have been bilked out of more than $2,000 by various scams last month, according to the Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio, which released a list of the most common.
The BBB Scam Tracker says women from Reynoldsburg and Mt. Vernon were conned out of a total of $900 by the Government Grant Scam.
The Mt. Vernon woman received a phone call stating she qualified for a $9,000 government grant. She was told that first, she had to register by paying a $250 fee with an iTunes gift card. Next, she had to pay $450 for the first $4,500, and then an additional $450 for the last $4,500. She lost $700.00 and received no money.
The woman from Reynoldsburg lost $200 after she received a phone call claiming that because she paid her taxes on time, she was eligible for a government grant. The caller told her she had to register with the Federal Reserve by paying $200 with a prepaid gift card before she could receive the money.
The federal government will not contact anyone directly for loans, or require any sort of fee to receive them, the bureau says.
A Columbus woman developed a relationship with a suitor on Facebook and wired him $700. This man has since become aggressive and has begun threatening her through texts for more money, an example of what is known as a “Romance Scam.”
Many romance scams start with scammers creating fake profiles on social media or online dating sites by stealing photos and text from real accounts. Scammers may claim to be in the military or working overseas to explain why they cannot meet face-to-face.
The BBB warns those looking for love to be wary of a person who always has an excuse to postpone meeting in person and recommends never sending money or reveal personal information to someone you have not met in person or have not verified as reliable.
Some people may fib in their dating profiles, but be on the lookout for big discrepancies.
A senior citizen from Guysville reported receiving an instant message telling her she needed to clean up her computer and offering a lifetime warranty against hackers for $400. She complied, falling for what is called the “Tech Support Scam.”
Beware of the following tech support scam red flags:
You receive a call from someone claiming to work for Microsoft or another prominent company. Most big tech company’s employees will not call customers who haven’t asked to be called
You see a pop-up notification on your computer, but it’s not from a program you installed. Scammers make tech support scam pop-ups look like they’re coming from your computer, but they’re actually ads. You’re offered a “free security scan,” or a pop-up says a free security scan already has found a virus on your machine. Many antivirus software providers offer free trials of their software, but programs cannot scan your computer before you’ve installed them.
Someone wants you to give them access to your computer. Remote access programs make it possible for people to “take over” computers that are far away from them in order to help fix them.
-Source: Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio
A senior citizen in Marion was wise to the “Grandparent Scam.”
She got a call from a New York telephone number from a person claiming to be her grandson, who told her he had been arrested for having alcohol in his car, was currently in jail and didn’t want his parents to find out. He said he would have his attorney call her back to tell her where to send the money but she recognized the scam and did not send any money.
This was a very good example of the scam, where someone calls an older person and says something such as, “Hi Grandma, do you know who this is?” Responding with a name will allow the scammer to be able to establish a false identity, then ask for money to solve some unexpected problem.
They generally ask for payments to be paid via Western Union, MoneyGram, Money Pak cards, or other untraceable methods.
They usually say their voice sounds different because of the accident or crisis and ask that the grandparent not tell their parents.