80-year-old resident reportedly told he owed ‘back taxes’
Kennett Square Police want to warn residents of a phishing scam that has targeted elderly and Hispanic residents, trying to lure them into releasing personal information with threats of arrest, deportation.
A news release provided this recent example: On Monday, April 28, at about 2 p.m., an 80-year-old Kennett Square resident received a phone call from a male who said the resident owed back taxes and needed to call a phone number to “straighten the matter out.” When the resident called the number and spoke to a second male, the resident was told that he owed $1,000 in back taxes that had to be paid immediately or he would be arrested.
Police said that the resident did the right thing by hanging up and reporting the incident to them. In such phishing attempts, the callers usually try to frighten a person into thinking they are going to be arrested for something, then have the potential victim either buy a money card and give them the numbers to transfer the funds (usually in the thousands of dollars) – or they try to get their personal information for identity theft, police said. Unfortunately, the elderly fall victim to these type scams far too often, the release said.
Similar incidents have occurred in the borough’s Spanish community where potential victims are threatened with arrest and deportation unless they pay a fee to “straighten the matter out,” the release said, adding that victims are often told that they have violated some type of immigration law or filed incorrect paperwork.
Kennett Square Police said they want to remind residents not to release personal information over the phone to anyone and to report any type of phishing attempts to police.
