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According to Vermilion Parish Mike Couvillon, residents in Vermilion Parish have been receiving phone calls over the last couple of weeks from individual's using local numbers asking residents if they would like to lower their credit card payments and the individual on the other end of the phone then attempts to get potential victims credit card number.
Couvillon urges the public to please be aware that this is a SCAM. Sheriff Couvillon says that at this time it is uncertain if the individual(s) are from this area or not, but the number that is appearing on the caller I.D. of residents shows that it is a local number however it is believed that this individual(s) are spoofing their numbers with a local number to try gain the trust of the person they are trying to scam.
Sheriff Couvillon says that Caller ID Spoofing allows the person dialing the number to disguise their real number, and voice A Spoofed phone number may be traced by the telephone company. Depending on the origin of the Spoofed call, the tracing of the number may easily be identified, but there are cases where it would be more difficult to obtain the originating phone number. A telephone number can be Spoofed in several ways. Spoofers can use one of the following methods to Spoof: calling card, hand held device (I-Phone, I-pod), or personal computer.
Sheriff Couvillon also stated that another scam which has been circulating over the last week or so is what is known as the Jamaican Lottery Phone Scam, whereby the caller indicates to the potential victim that they have won $2.5 million dollars in cash and a Mercedes Benz but has to send $450.00 via Western Union to Jamaica to pay for taxes.
Sheriff Couvillon says that this is not a new scam, and it has been around for some years, but has just recently picked up again.
Sheriff Couvillon says that these Jamaican scams originate from an 876 area code, and says that individuals should never send money, but many victims do hoping that they have hit the big JACKPOT. If you have received any calls similar to these you should contact your local law enforcement agency and/or the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org.
Finally, Sheriff Couvillon says that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Tag: phone card, Calling Card
Source: http://www.katc.com/news/caller-id-spoofing-and-jamaican-lottery-scam/
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