Phone scammers difficult to track down

“Jiminy Christmas!” That was Alice Lyle’s thought when she heard what someone claiming to be from Social Security was telling her over the phone -- that a complaint had been filed against her due to a felony charge.

“After I heard that I hung up,” Lyle said.

Lyle immediately called Social Security to make sure the agency did not call her and was reassured that the agency does not make calls like that. Lyle said the caller did not provide a name and that caller I.D. indicated that the suspicious call came from Kenedy, Texas.

Yuba County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Leslie Carbah said via email that scam complaints are passed along to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and are only dealt with by the Sheriff’s Office if someone is scammed out of money at which point a fraud report is filed.

“We are aware of several reoccurring scams of similar methods deployed nationally that make their way around on a pretty frequent basis,” Carbah said.

Carbah mentioned Social Security, Internal Revenue Service, bail and warrant scams that typically comes up. She said the Sheriff’s Office periodically sends out public service announcements that warn people about potential scams but that there is no current list of scammers because the culprits change regularly.

The FTC released its 2019 National Do Not Call Data Book on Thursday which tracks the number and type of scam calls reported in the country. Data collected from Oct. 2016 to Sept. 2019 reported 2,061 complaints from Sutter County and 1,897 complaints from Yuba County. In both counties calls about reducing debt were the most common and robocalls were more common than live callers, according to the FTC’S website.

Yuba City Police Department Lt. James Runyen said that it is difficult to catch suspected phone scammers because they could be calling from anywhere and that the department refers complaints to the FBI. He said there isn’t much the department can do about scammers and that he is not aware of any current trends in phone scams.

Jessica Chiechi is a recreation supervisor at the Yuba City Senior Center. She said the center hears from people who receive scam phone calls and the message that is passed along to them is to never give out personal information over the phone.

“If you don’t know who the caller is it’s okay to let it go to voicemail,” Chiechi said.

Chiechi said she’s had experience with scam phone calls coming from people claiming to be with Pacific Gas and Electric Co., saying it was going to turn her power off and for her to call back. She noted that the scammers were able to use PG&E’S 1-800 number to try and dupe people into falling for the scam.

The center provides identity theft and fraud prevention workshops at the senior center to educate the community about the issue.

Chiechi said the next workshop will be Nov. 21 at 11 a.m. at the senior center located on Ainsley Avenue, Yuba City.