Monday, January 20, 2025

Scammers Weekly: ‘If you get a call like this, hang up’

(WYDaily file/Courtesy of Pixabay)
(WYDaily file/Courtesy of Pixabay)

WYDaily has collaborated with AARP to raise awareness about scams people need to watch out for.

A scam will be featured every Wednesday, so be sure to always check WYDaily.com and be in the know.

Here’s this week’s edition:

A new scam that has emerged this summer involves people posing as bank representatives and offering to pick up a customer’s “compromised” bank card.

This scam originates over the phone with the impostor offering to send a “senior services” agent to the house to pick up the credit card or debit card and PIN  so the problem can be fixed, according to AARP.

The scammer then racks up credit card debt or drains checking accounts attached to debit cards.

Know this: banks don’t have “senior service centers” from which they send bank employees to your home, according to AARP.

If you get a call like this, hang up.

Visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network by clicking here or call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360 to report a scam or get help if you’ve fallen victim.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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