Full Notification

The holidays are a time for giving and criminals prey on those good spirited intentions. Unfortunately telephone scams are again showing their presence in the area.

Most recently The Department of Public Safety was alerted to a scam wherein: A subject contacts you by telephone and tells you that they are with a Law Enforcement Agency. This agency may or may not be located inside the United States. Most have been reported as out of the country. The subject on the telephone informs you that your loved one in being detained and that if you wire transfer a large sum of money they will be released. If you were to stay on the telephone even longer the subject would tell you where to send the money and a name to put it in care of. This would be a random name that had not been previously mentioned in the conversation. And of course if asked they would not let you speak to your loved one over the telephone.

This of course is not how Law Enforcement works. Please understand that NO Law Enforcement agency is going to request that large sums of money are wire transferred for bail.

The best thing you can do if you were to receive a call similar to this is check the validity of the call. Some of the people making the calls can be very convincing, making it hard to tell if the call is real or not. The first way is to attempt contact with your loved one. Next would be make contact with other family members that may be able to locate or give information regarding the loved ones whereabouts. Finally you can contact The Department of Public Safety for assistance. Under no circumstance should you transfer the money!

Most crimes have three elements to them: Desire, Ability, and Opportunity. And while we may not be able to do anything about the first two elements, the third element can be minimized through education and good practices.

If you have experienced this type of solicitation please contact The Department of Public Safety and report the incident. Emergency 911 Non-Emergency (314)835-6200.