Full Notification

MEDIA RELEASE
October 28, 2015


The Rutherfordton Police Department would like to express our sincere gratitude to Rutherfordton Food Lion employee Doris Walls for her attentive observations and positive actions. Her alertness today prevented a citizen from losing money due to a fraudulent hoax that is referred to by the FBI as “The Grandparent Scam”.

On October 28, 2015 Officers with the Rutherfordton Police Department responded to Food Lion at 169 Railroad Ave. in Rutherfordton to a possible fraud. A person purchasing a “netSpend Reload” card was convinced by Food Lion employee Doris Walls to talk with an Officer before following through on what she felt was a scam. The person attempting to purchase the card had received a call regarding a grandchild being arrested and needing $2,500 sent via the “Reload” card for bail. Officers spoke with the potential victim, and were able to confirm that the grandchild in fact had not been arrested, and that the scenario was indeed a hoax to attempt to obtain money by wire from the potential victim.

“The Grandparent Scam”, while several years old, is still unfortunately is one of the many scam currently being used to successfully defraud. The following is an excerpt from an April, 2012 story from the FBI website regarding this scam:

“And, our advice to avoid being victimized in the first place:
• Resist the pressure to act quickly.
• Try to contact your grandchild or another family member to determine whether or not the call is legitimate.
• Never wire money based on a request made over the phone or in an e-mail...especially overseas. Wiring money is like giving cash—once you send it, you can’t get it back. “


Awareness of this and other scams is very important in protecting yourself from being defrauded. The full article on “The Grandparent Scam” and others can be viewed on the FBI website at:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/april/grandparent_040212