When Scammers Call, Here's Advice From Los Altos Police

LOS ALTOS - The Los Altos Police Department released information Friday on the City of Los Altos web site giving tips to local residents who could become the target of telephone scammers. Here's their information:

Help prevent your friends and family from becoming victims of telephone scams. How? Talk to them about common phone scams and share this information with them.

Telephone scammers work indiscriminately, but the elderly are most likely to fall victim for various reasons. Scammers target anyone with a telephone and play on their fears. They might try to convince you that you owe the IRS money, that your power will be shut off if you don’t pay up, or that your child or grandchild is being held in jail or hostage and you need to pay to have them released.

Know that the IRS will never call your home asking for money without first mailing you a notice. If someone is asking you for a credit or debit card number or to wire them money, it’s a scam. Don’t fall for it. Call 1-800-366-4484 to determine if the caller is an IRS employee with a legitimate need to contact you.

Some scammers may even leave a callback phone number, which makes you think they must be legitimate. It’s not. Scammers can easily set-up bogus phone numbers and then drop them before they can be traced by the Police.

However alarming it may be, do not believe someone who calls claiming to be your grandson’s best friend and tells you he needs money to bail him out of jail. Ask for a callback number and get in touch with your family to confirm the whereabouts of your loved one to set your mind at ease.

Most importantly, be sure to report phone scams to authorities:

• Report to Los Altos Police at (650) 947-2770

• Report IRS Scams to phishing@irs.gov

General advice for dealing with potential scams:

• Never give financial or identifying personal information to an unverified source

• Ask for callers’ names and phone numbers. Call back to verify information, and if the call-back number is fake, call the Police

• Do not engage in lengthy conversations

If you or someone you know was already tricked into transferring money, report it to the money transfer company:

• MoneyGram: 1-800-666-3947 (1-800-955-7777 for Spanish) or at moneygram.com

• Western Union: 1-800-448-1492

For more information about IRS scams, visit https://www.irs.gov/uac/Report-Phishing.

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