Brentwood Police recently sent out the following warnings about two phone scams in the area.
IRS SCAM ALERT
Brentwood Police Department has been getting dozens and dozens of calls from people about the Treasury Department or the IRS calling them about criminal proceedings unless the victims pay with Moneygram immediately, and they instruct the victim to call a phone number back.DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM.
The IRS and the US Treasury will not call you if they have a case against you, and they will definitely not call you from a call center in Pakistan or India using US phone numbers.
As a matter of fact, a Brentwood Police Detective received one of these calls today, where they threatened to arrest him within 45 minutes if he did not pay by Moneygram immediately. They knew all of his tax information, his employer, his criminal history, and even where he was during the call! EXCEPT for this tiny detail – he gave them the fake name “Beil Smith” and used a fake number to call them back.
Do not be fooled. If you receive such a call, hang up.
Phone Scam
A Brentwood resident reported that they received a phone call from a man with a heavy accent – believed to be from India – stating he was from Microsoft and he needed to update her computer remotely. He instructed her to add a new piece of software and also a keystroke logger software so they could monitor the activity on her computer.
Microsoft and Apple will not make unsolicited calls to you and tell you to put software on your computer, so please do not fall for this type of scam. Keystroke logging software is especially dangerous, because it can give criminals access to your bank and other account numbers, your passwords, and many other private areas of your computer and your life, which can lead to Identity Theft and substantial financial loss.Your favorite search engine can help you identify these scams before you are a victim.
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