Police: Don't Send Money to Solicitors Using Phone, Email or Mail

Point Beach and Point Borough police are urging area residents not to send any money in response to any solicitations using phone calls, email or mail.

There has been a recent rash of scammers using the phone, email, mail and, in one case, even a fax, to tell Point Beach residents they have won money, but also have to send money to the solicitors, said Detective Patrick Petruzziello.

Sometimes the scammers tell the residents they have won a lottery or prizes, but have to mail out a processing or other type of fee, sometimes to an overseas address, Petruzziello said.

"If someone says you won something, but you have to send something in return, don't send it," he said.

Many of the scammers are asking people to send money via Western Union, he added.

"If they say to use Western Union, that's a red flag," he said.

Police are urging residents to not send any money to any solicitors and to report the incident to police, who are tracking patterns.

Point Borough has not seen a recent increase in these types of scams, but has recently had a few such incidents, said Captain Richard Larsen.