March 6, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
Scammers are preying on the elderly of DeKalb County in a new way and Sheriff Patrick Ray urges you guard against becoming a victim.
According to Sheriff Ray, would be victims have reported receiving calls in recent weeks from someone telling them that their grandchild has been injured in a wreck and needs money for an attorney because they have been arrested.
The caller asks the victim to put money on a Walmart or Google card and then to read off the card’s numbers and access code to them. The scammer then instantly withdraws the money from the card.
Most have figured out it’s a scam but one person has fallen victim to it and lost several thousands of dollars.
Sheriff Ray urges you to just hang up if you get such a call. If you should become a victim report it to the sheriff’s department but don’t expect to recover your cash. “Once those cards are cleared they go into a bank account and then they go outside the United States so there is no way to get the victim’s money back,” said Sheriff Ray.