POLICE ARE warning the public about phone and internet scams. This includes giving personal and credit card information over the phone and internet and requests for money via internet and phone.
Following are three very recent samples of incidents in Terrace.
A man received a phone call yesterday telling him that his credit card was being used in Mexico.
When the man started to ask questions, the caller hung up on him. The man then called the Royal Bank who informed him that his credit card had not been used in Mexico.
In another incident, a woman had decided to consolidate her debt. After the fact, she realized that she had provided a company that she knew nothing about with all of her personal information over the phone. It made her very uncomfortable. She has begun the long process of cancelling her cards and advising necessary agencies of the possible breach of her personal information.
Finally, in a third incident a woman had met a man on Facebook. He claimed that he needed money for his sick son who needed surgery in Africa. She sent him an amount of money thru a Western Union Money Order to a bank in the United Kingdom. This was the first of many amounts of money transfers. A significant amount of money has been stolen from this woman.
Police are very limited in providing assistance in these circumstances. The public has to be vigilant in guarding their personal information. A general rule of thumb is do not give out any information over the phone. And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.