Over the past several months the Fishers Police Department has investigated several different types of telephone scams. One of the most recent scams involved a person impersonating a DEA Agent accusing the person of being involved in an illegal drug investigation and demanding they send gift cards in order to clear their name.
Many of these telephone scammers instruct the victim to stay on the phone, not tell anyone of the conversation, and travel to a store and purchase gift cards or green dot cards for a certain amount.
Unfortunately, there have been a few Fishers residents that have been taken advantage of and have lost thousands of dollars. Here are a few safety tips you should follow if you are contacted by a possible telephone scammer:
- Immediately hang up the phone if you do not recognize or know the caller
- Never give out personal information. If you feel the call might be legitimate, you can ask the person to mail you information
- No legitimate company or organization requires payment via gift cards or green dot cards
- No law enforcement agency threatens to arrest people over the phone.
- If something does not sound or feel right, hang up the phone.
- You are welcome to contact your local law enforcement agency, however most of these telephone scams originate from overseas and are very difficult if not impossible to trace.
For more information regarding the DEA telephone scam please visit https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2019/03/13/dea-warns-alarming-increase-scam-calls