Full Notification

Over the past year, the South Brunswick Police Department has seen an uptick in cases involving residents being victimized by fraudulent phone calls, emails, and text messages. Some of these cases ended with the residents being wary and not falling for the scam, but in other cases the thieves were convincing enough where the victims were scammed out of a considerable amount of money.

In several recent cases, residents were contacted either by voice call or robocall by someone claiming to be soliciting donations for “The State Police” or for a local police agency. Please know that the State Police, South Brunswick Police Department (SBPD), the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and the Policemen’s Benevolence Association (PBA) will never reach out by unsolicited phone calls seeking donations.

According to a study conducted by the Better Business Bureau, payment by gift card is a common thread among many scams reported today, including government impersonators, business email compromise frauds, tech support frauds, romance scams, fake check scams, prize/sweepstakes scams, and online sales of nonexistent vehicles.

In one common gift card scam, cybercriminals place a call or send a text message to the victim, claim to be a government agency or authority figure (such as the IRS, Social Security, the FBI or a state or federal health department) and tell them that they owe money and must pay immediately with gift cards to avoid further penalties or even jail time.

Utility company scams are similar. In this one, a criminal poses as an electricity, gas or water company, contacts the victim by phone or email, and informs them that they have overdue bills that need to be paid with a gift card. If the victim doesn’t pay right away, the scammer threatens to cut off their service.

Another form of the scam may also involve a caller claiming to be from a known business, such as a cable TV and internet provider, claiming that you can save money by pre-paying your bill for the next few years at an enormous discount by purchasing gift cards and providing the caller with the card number and pin number.

The truth is that in all of these cases, the victim is out some sum of money, oftentimes substantial, and tracking the scammer to recover funds is difficult or impossible.

In an effort to prevent our residents from falling victim to these types of scams, we would like to offer the following fraud prevention tips:

• ALWAYS BE SUSPICIOUS OF ANYONE DEMANDING PAYMENT VIA GIFT CARDS OF ANY TYPE.
• Always confirm that the caller is who they say they are, and represents the entity they claim to represent. Remember that people may lie about who they really are. This includes calls from people claiming to be IRS, law enforcement, public utilities, your grandkids, etc.
• When receiving a communication from someone claiming to be a representative of a governmental agency, like a police department, Immigration, or the FBI, know that none of these agencies will accept a gift card or cryptocurrency as payment for an arrest warrant, overdue fees, or bail.
• Never trust a phone number provided by the caller, and never trust caller ID to provide the correct information; the caller may be using software to block or alter the number showing on your screen.
• When contacted via text or email by someone claiming to be a friend, family member or colleague asking you to purchase gift cards and send them the codes, reach out by phone or in person to confirm they are who they say they are. Scammers have been known to spoof or hack email accounts to ply their scams.
• When someone you supposedly know contacts you looking for money and tells you not to bother calling their cell phone because it was lost, stolen, or broken, be wary. Try their phone number anyway, and be sure to confirm their identity.
• If you receive a suspicious phone call, hang up quickly. Scammers can be very convincing, and the longer they keep you on the line, the more likely they are to convince you to send money.