Beware of Scams in Lewis County

The Lewis County Sheriff's Office has been receiving several complaints of attempted telephone scams recently. These scams include fraudulent claims that the person answering the phone has won unclaimed funds from the Publisher's Clearinghouse. The scam caller claims to be a bank president and an FBI agent in an attempt to legitimize thew call with payment coming through Western Union.

The second scam involves a local resident who had an item posted on Craigslist for sale.  The scammer appeared to make a legitimate payment through Paypal but it was a fraud. The victim, believing the buyer (scammer) had overpaid then sent money back to the scammer through Western Union.  The deposit was never actually made and the victim was out of his/her money.

The third scam involved someone asking for Medicare information including the victim's personal banking information.

A fourth scam involved a call to a local resident claiming that they were a grandchild of a local resident and was currently in the Dominican Republic and needed money to get back home.  Some of the callers claimed they had lost their belongings and other callers say they were arrested and needed the money to get out of jail.

All residents are reminded they should never give any information over the phone.  If you have any calls of this nature contact the Lewis County Sheriff's Office at 573-767-5287.