GLASGOW — The Barren County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate several recent scams targeting elderly Barren County residents. Detective Ann Phelps said she has received word of several scams lately, including mail and phone scams.
Detective Rusty Anderson said the department looks into each of the scam reports it receives, many of which involve attempts to get money from the elderly. He said the department tries to warn the public before they fall victim to fraud.
“We check into all of them and 99 percent are done by a similar group of people. They use false names and false addresses, and they want you to wire them money. Once you wire the money they can go ahead and pick it up from another state or another country by using a fake ID. Western Union lets them pick up the money wire from anywhere with that fake ID, so it could really be anybody doing it,” he said.
He said some of the most common scams right now falsely report that the recipient of the letter has won the lottery.
“The most popular scam is a lottery scam that is coming in from Canada or some other country. They say you won money in a lottery and need to send them money in order to claim the winnings,” he said.
Anderson, Sheriff Chris Eaton and Deputy Steve Runyon spoke to about a dozen AARP members at the Lera B. Mitchell Clubhouse in Glasgow on Monday. The three discussed ways senior citizens in attendance could protect themselves from becoming victims of scams, including reading pieces of mail carefully.
“If you get a letter in the mail that sounds too good to be true it probably is, so you need to get in contact with your local law enforcement or sheriff’s office,” Eaton said.
Runyon also detailed a program the department oversees that lists emergency contact numbers for the elderly or disabled in the county. He distributed sheets to the group that allow them to list phone numbers for relatives and neighbors so that the sheriff’s office may have points of contact if an elderly person goes missing or has an emergency. He said that anyone wanting to fill out a form may do so at the sheriff’s office in the Barren County Government Center.
Eaton said it is just one of several programs the department supports to assist the elderly and disabled in Barren County.
“We have the scam prevention, emergency contact lists and also on Wednesdays and Thursdays we use the van to take the elderly to doctor’s visits and the grocery,” he said.
Judy Tabor said it was helpful having the sheriff, detective and deputy come speak to the group members because they can help spread the word to friends and neighbors about ongoing scams. She said she has had scam artists come to her front door in the past, but she always turns them away.
“They always say they know your neighbors and they’re very picky about getting their license numbers. I always try to write down their license plate numbers but they get away too fast,” she said.
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S.O. program designed to protect seniors from scams
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