Phone, Email Scams on the Rise, Officials Say

With reports locally of phone and email scams on the rise, Manchester Police and township officials are warning residents to be wary of random contacts soliciting money.

Locals have been hit by everything from email scams to cover mysterious IRS fees to phone scams purporting to be Microsoft, requiring money to fix security holes, and all of them are fakes, Mayor Michael Fressola said.

Others are more insidious, Fressola said—one resident told police a caller claimed to be an attorney representing a relative in desperate need of cash; another claimed to be a sweepstakes official who needed $220 to cover fees for a million-dollar award.

In all, the scams have cost residents hundreds of dollars each, on average, Fressola said.

“Please be aware, be very suspicious of any phone call, e-mail or regular mail that solicits money in advance from you for almost any purpose,” he said. “This is not the way a legitimate organization operates, but it is exactly the way scams operate.”