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GFPD Sgt. Barbara McLeod said that recently, the department has received multiple reports of scam phone calls every day.
“I’d say in the last year, it’s been growing steadily,” she said. “But it does go in spurts, and it’s not unusual to get several a day.”
One of the most frequent scams recently is to call and say the call recipient has won a sweepstakes or a lottery of some kind, and in order to collect the prize, the recipient must buy a gift card and give the card number to the caller, essentially giving the caller access to the money on that card. Other common scams entail calls from someone posing as a worker from the IRS or other government bodies instructing the call recipient to pay fines or fees.
McLeod said it’s common for scams to result in the theft of hundreds of dollars, but she has spoken with people who have lost several…
