Modern Day Technology May Be Giving Scammers 'A Leg-Up'

Scam artists are making use of new technology that allows for telephone numbers to be disguised, making it seem like a call is coming from a local police department or utility company, when its not.

A Montclair resident received one of these calls, was told that he owed an excess of $5,000 in back taxes, and that he had two hours to pay or else he would be arrested, reports My9NJ.com.

“He was instructed to go to one of the stores and get prepaid cards and purchase $5,000 in prepaid cards and furnish the redemption codes to the suspect,” Lt. David O’Dowd with the Montclair Police Department told My9NJ.com.

This scam however is not unique to Montclair, O’Dowd said that residents everywhere need to be aware of such scams and that calls can be about anything, from someone pretending to be the police to someone impersonating kidnappers.

“The victims were contacted by a caller who claimed to have been in a car accident with one of their family members. They actually had the family member’s names and information and they claimed that now they had the family members held hostage and would not release the family members or threaten to harm them,” O’Dowd told My9NJ.com.

In this instance however the phone scam target was able to contact the person who was allegedly kidnapped before sending money.

If you believe that you have fallen victim to or been the target of a phone scam, contact your local police department.