A Lincoln County deputy investigated a fraud case on Saturday evening. A Tomahawk woman thought she was buying a dog via the internet from a seller in Wisconsin and agreed to send the money using a pre-paid money card often purchased at chain retail stores. When the sale price was paid, the woman was contacted by the fake seller and told additional fees were needed for such things as a shipping crate and insurance for the transfer. The woman was told the dog was in the state of Oregon which was adding to the costs.
When the woman would balk at the requests for cash, the caller would tell her the dog would be abandoned at an airport if she did not pay the new fees. By the time the woman called the Sheriff’s Office she had sent over $2,000 to the scammers. The investigating deputy checked the web site and noted that other supposedly legitimate companies that claimed to be a part of the web site and acted as such things as shippers were based outside of the United States and as far away as Turkey.
s the scam and thieves are most likely not in the United States, local law enforcement has limited resources for helping recoup the money. You are reminded if the seller demands use of pre-paid cash cards it is probably a scam. As soon as you give the card number it can be liquidated of funds immediately and the money is untraceable.
Residents are also reminded that this is the time of the year for the grandma scam. This is the scam where callers reach out to elderly people and pretend to be a grandchild in trouble, usually in Mexico or Canada on a planned or spontaneous spring break trip. The fake grandchild tells the grandparent they need cash in order to get out of a foreign jail or to pay for medical costs after a car crash and they always warn the grandparent not to tell anyone especially their parents. Students going on spring break can help prevent this from happening to their grandparents by keeping in touch with relatives while on vacation and by setting their facebook status to private to keep scammers from using details on social media to substantiate their false claims.