North Glen Square Neighborhood Association

Scams

Please be aware that there are many crooks out there who want to take your money. Never give any personal information to someone you don't know unless you have initiated the transaction with them. Whether on the phone or at your front door, use caution when dealing with strangers. 

These are reports from neighbors, neighborhood leaders or police about scams they have personal experience with.

Mislaid USB Stick? Or Malicious Attack?

What would you do if you found a USB stick in a parking lot or laying on the sidewalk in front of your house this morning? Would you pick it up? Would you plug it into your computer? Believe it or not, sprinkling USB sticks in a parking lot is a common ploy criminals use to infiltrate a network or home computer. It’s a “social engineering’ tactic that takes advantage of people’s honesty (or curiosity) to try and identify the owner. Once the user plugs in the USB, malicious software on the stick has a chance to infect the PC.

The US Department of Homeland Security ran an experiment by sprinkling USB sticks in the parking lots of government buildings. It found that 60% of people who picked up the media plugged them into their computers.

If you find a USB memory stick, don’t plug it into your work or home PC and run the risk of loading malicious software. If you find one, if it has no identifying information on the outside of its case, than just simply destroy it and throw it away.

PC Virus Scam

I got a call from someone who identified himself as tech and customer support for Microsoft, telling me my particular PC was infected and sending out viruses and that I must provide information (hmmmm?), and download software (oh really?). The person represented that they knew I had a PC. I simply asked him to confirm he meant Windows PC. When he said yes I knew it was a scam as I had suspected. I have a Mac, not a PC.

Phone Scam

My partner, Detective Morris, has noticed an alarming trend in a particular telephone fraud scheme.  Yesterday alone, there were two cases in our precinct of grandparents being defrauded out of thousands of dollars.  The first was a walk in at the precinct and the money obviously wasn't sent, as Detective Morris was able to ascertain the contact was a fraud.  The second resulted in the victim losing over $9000.00 and we were contacted after the fact.

This scam is targeting grandparents and they pose as family members in need.  There are several scenarios, but primarily they involve a short period of time( 1-2 hours) for the wire transaction and they  don't want to stress out other family members.  Obviously, these scammers are very convincing and the best defense is to get the word out and validate any information given with family members prior to taking any action. 

It appears the victim information is being obtained from social media sites ( ie. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter).  Please secure your social pages and double check personal information you may have already provided on these sites.   

Last and not least, contact the police.....follow-up and arrest is possible in these cases.

STAY SAFE, BE VIGILANT

Detective/CAO Aaron Stevens #7398
Mountain View Precinct
2075 E Maryland Av
Phoenix, AZ 85016
cell: 602-361-0043