Woburn Police Warn Of Recent Phone Scams

WOBURN, MA — Woburn police on Thursday warned community members to be on the lookout for phone scams after police said they recently received multiple scam reports.

Police detailed a handful of common scams while advising community members to remain cautious.

“The scammers are usually very knowledgeable and use key terms on the phone sounding legitimate,” police said in a message on social media. “In the end they are all just trying to scam innocent people out of their hard earned money.”

One of the recent scams, police said, involved someone pretending to represent the victim’s cell phone provider.

Police said the scammer called and said a new cell phone account had been opened in the victim’s name in China. That led to a situation where the victim spoke with someone she thought was a Chinese law enforcement official investigating a large fraud scheme in China, according to police.

The victim, police said, was eventually convinced to wire transfer large amounts of money, in part after threats of arrest if she didn’t pay up.

A separate scam, police said, saw two residents report calls from people saying they were employees of Geek Squad reaching out about a computer service. Victims believed the calls were legitimate and sent money to the callers, only to receive none of the promised services and no confirmation, police said.

Police said scammers contacted the residents again, this time saying there had been a payment issue and asking for a large wire transfer.

“Luckily these residents realized this was a scam and notified their financial institution stopping any money loss,” police said.

Police detailed another common scam where someone pretending to be a victim’s grandchild calls a victim and says they have been arrested. The callers ask for bail money, often sent via courier, police said.

“These scams are very common with the suspects using a variety of techniques to make the scam seem legitimate,” police said.

Ultimately, police said community members can protect themselves by avoiding giving personal information over the phone and by avoiding sending money to anyone in these types of situations.

“If a caller is requesting and often demanding money through threats of imprisonment or warrants for arrest, this is an obvious scam,” police said.

Community members, in general, should “never, ever” agree to send money by wire transfer, courier, or by buying gift cards and providing serial numbers to callers, police said.

See more information from the Federal Trade Commission here.