Carbon County Sheriff Jeff Wood had a very important message for citizens in Carbon County regarding the latest scam involving Facebook and it has already affected individuals who are now out thousands and thousands of dollars.
“The last couple of weeks we’ve had six victims in our county. The scammers will meet you on Facebook, they will friend you. They will start conversation with you on Facebook. Then they will tell you that they are in the military and in a foreign land somewhere and they need to come home but don’t have the money to come. So they will ask if you will help them out and they will tell you that they do have the money. They will tell you they have the money but need to deposit it into an account and they will ask to use your account,” stated Wood. The scammer will then tell the victim that they will send them a check to cash and will offer to include more money to the victim just for helping them out. Anyone who is in the US Military has the means to get home by the Government and would never ask civilians to help them come home.
Once the victim receives the check they are asked to deposit into their account and wire the money to the scammer. “The scam is if you do that the check is a fraudulent check. You’ll deposit it and it’ll take days before you realize it’s a fraudulent check and you’ll have already wire the money out and you’re out the money,” said Wood. If you question anyone asking for money to be sent to them contact your bank institution immediately because they are aware of what scams are currently going on.
The Sheriff’s Department will be hosting an Open House as Wood explains further, “The Intake Building is located behind Gas n’ Go and a lot of people have asked me what is in there. That is where we keep all of our resources in times of emergency, like our command post, there is a lot of cool things in there. Our UTVs that we use, our ATV that we have, all of our resources and that will be on August 6.” Community member will be allowed to come take a tour, enjoy hot dogs and see what that building is all about.
To learn more about what is going on at the Carbon County Sheriff’s Department visit their Facebook page.