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Telephone scam targets Longmeadow residents

Date: 3/28/2011

March 28, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — The Longmeadow Police Department is asking citizens to be aware of a potential telephone scam.

Capt. John Stankiewicz confirmed that a complaint was made by a resident regarding telephone solicitation received at the person's residence.

According to the Police Department's official press release, the solicitor, from an unidentified company, reportedly asked the resident for a financial donation on behalf of the department.

The solicitor told the resident that he was given proper authorization from Longmeadow Police Chief Robert Siano to raise the funds.

Stankiewicz said in a telephone message left for Reminder Publications that he had no further information as of press time.

The Longmeadow Police Department asks that anyone who may receive a similar telephone solicitation to contact them and report the incident. The Police Department is located at 34 Williams St. The main phone number is 565-3311.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center, Massachusetts ranked 18th among the 50 states in reported cases of white collar fraud in 2010. A total of 4,856 victims filed complaints and more than $3.6 million was stolen from Massachusetts residents last year.

According to the FBI's Web site on fraud, www.fbi.gov/scamssafety/fraud, it is very difficult to recover lost money once a person becomes a victim of telemarketing fraud and advises, among other things, to never give personal information or money to unfamiliar companies or people.

Personal information to avoid giving out includes numbers and expiration dates of credit cards, bank account numbers, dates of birth and social security numbers.

The FBI also advises that anyone who receives unsolicited phone calls requesting this information to ask for the person's name, the business they represent, their telephone number, street address, mailing address, and business license number.

Because scammers can use falsified information, take time to verify the accuracy of the information.



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