Hunterdon County Sheriff Fred W. Brown is warning the public about new and increasingly sophisticated scams targeting residents during the holiday season.
The Hunterdon County Sheriff’s Office is aware of two ongoing scam campaigns. The first involves a caller who representing himself or herself as a member of the Geek Squad technical team and tries and get the resident to give them access to their personal computer or mobile device. If you receive such a call, Brown advises that you to hang up immediately and not allow remote access to your home computer or mobile device.
The other ongoing scam campaign involves fake correspondence from PayPal. In this instance, residents are receiving text messages or emails alleging an issue with a consumer PayPal account. Residents are then directed to a phone number or email link where there is an attempt to gather personal information from the consumer. Brown again advises residents to not contact these numbers or click on unidentified web links.
“Scammers are particularly aggressive during the holiday season attempting to deceive residents with misleading phone calls, emails and text messages hoping to exploit a moment of confusion particularly during the heavy shopping season. Residents need to remain vigilant, and never hesitate to contact the Hunterdon County Sheriff’s Office or their local law enforcement department if they have question about correspondence that they have received,” Brown said.
The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs is another resource for learning about protection from scams and the AARP recently published an informational article on how to help seniors protect themselves from scams: aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-08-2013/protect-your-parents-from-scams.html.
Residents can contact the Hunterdon County Sheriff’s Office at 908-788-1166, with any questions or to report suspicious activity.
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