Full Notification

The Columbia Township Police Department has been receiving recent calls from residents of more telephone scams being attempted. The most recent scams are the “Publisher’s Clearing House” scam and the “your grandson is in jail and needs bond money” scam.

In the “Publisher’s Clearing House” scam, the fraudster is telling the resident that they have won a prize (sometimes mentioning Publisher’s Clearing House), and they need to purchase green-dot cards to be able to redeem their winnings. Once the victim provides the fraudster with the information from the purchased green-dot card, the suspect is able to immediately access the funds on the card (typically $500.00), and pull all the money from the card.

In a slight variation to the green-dot cards, the victims are directed to use Western Union to wire transfer money to a specific person in a specific place. The suspects then call the victim to obtain the “CTN” number from the transaction, and that information, along with the exact amount of the transaction, allows the suspect to access the money from anywhere in the world where there is a Western Union office.

In the “your grandson is in jail and needs bond money” scam, the suspects call the victims, who are typically elderly, to advise their grandson is in jail in a far-away place, and the grandparents need to send money via Western Union. The suspects will have a second person come on the line posing as the grandson, claiming that their nose is broke and they might be hard to understand. As in the scam above, once the money is sent out, it is lost to the victim.

Residents are cautioned to be very wary of calls such as this, and to not volunteer any information to the suspects should they receive a call. If there is any doubt about being scammed, the potential victims should check with a trusted family member, a neighbor, or your local police agency.