Man reports phone scam seeking more than $10,000 in cash and cards
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (March 6, 2023) – Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s officials say the Publishers Clearing House phone scam has claimed another victim in the area.
The office took a fraud complaint Friday from a Sandy Township man who apparently sent $9,000 in cash and $5,000 in Visa cards to someone who claimed to be offering a prize of $35 million and a new Mercedes-Benz.
Detective Lt. Adam Fisher says the man did manage to prevent the $9,000 from reaching the scammer by contacting the post office himself.
“The post office was able to track down the location of the package that was previously sent and they were able to stop that package from being mailed on further,” said Fisher.
Fisher says these crimes are always tricky to solve. The scammers know not to ask for the money to be sent to their homes.
“It’s never directly to their house or to them, there’s a number of stops along the way,” said Fisher. “They are so intricate that I wish I would be able to tell you all of the details because then I think we would have it figured out as well.”
Fisher says the victims are told they must pay taxes or processing fees before receiving their prize, which should be a red flag.
“Anytime that somebody is going to need you to pay something like that, they’re not going to do so with some type of gift card,” said Fisher. “None of these agencies are going to call you over the phone. They’re all going to reach out to you via some type of mail or paper document,” he added.
The victim and his family are working with Visa to try and get some of the gift card money back.