YCSO CONTINUES EFFORT TO SAVE RESIDENTS FROM BECOMING SCAM VICTIMS

Published on November 14, 2024

Scammers hopefully lost some potential victims in Black Canyon City and Ash Fork following YCSO presentations by Fraud Investigator Ron Norfleet, warning folks about how the criminals operate.

Most of the folks at the two events admitted they have gotten calls, text messages, and e mails from shady characters recently, but fortunately were able to recognize the scam and didn’t lose any money. Norfleet told the crowd the list of ongoing scams grows every week, and so do the number of Yavapai County residents losing thousands of dollars to the fraudsters.

First on the list is the “Sweetheart Scam”, where a romantic interest found online (dating site, social media, etc) “love bombs” the victim over a period of time and then in some cases swindles them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Arizona is #1 in the nation (per capita) in romance scams, mainly due to a large senior population, many of whom have lost a spouse and hope to cure their loneliness by finding that new special someone on their computer. With artificial intelligence (AI), scammers can appear to be beautiful/handsome rich people in some exotic overseas location, offering a wonderful future of bliss, but it's not real.

Norfleet said other popular scams include phony sweepstakes (you have to pay a big fee to get your winnings), law enforcement calls threatening arrest and jail for some phony old fine or warrant if you don’t pay thousands of dollars right now (don't trust your caller ID because scammers can spoof real numbers), calls from phony Social Security/Medicare/IRS agents seeking your personal information in order to fix phony account issues, and calls claiming someone’s grandchild has been kidnapped or injured in some remote place (using AI to mimic the family member’s voice crying for help to inspire payment of lots of money).

Norfleet said it’s all about “playing on your emotions”, and the best way to avoid being scammed is to hang up the phone immediately or delete the text or e mail without clicking on any links it contains. He also urged residents to never give personal or financial information of any kind to someone you have never met in person or do not know. As he put it, “Take your time, slow down, think about it, and investigate it to see if it’s real.”

Anyone receiving contact from a scammer should call YCSO Fraud Investigations at (928) 771-3299 to report what happened.