FARMINGTON ? When a local senior citizen was recently called and told he won a lottery, the caller convinced him he needed to pay for taxes up front.
After the man sent about $15,000, the calls continued even though a Farmington Police Department officer was there during a call and spoke to the caller, said Bonnie Pomeroy, department secretary.
The callers are aggressive and talk fast, she said.
There's little police can do. They've advised him to change his phone number but he doesn't want to. He still hopes there's some money coming, she said.
Another couple recently reported being told over the phone that their grandson was in trouble, Pomeroy said. They couldn't reach him or his parents.
Pomeroy advised them to connect with family members and they finally did reach their children and realized it was a scam.
Scams and identity thefts are so prevalent and it's difficult for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute, she said.
?Whether it's a huge scam of thousands of dollars or a smaller one, it's still devastating,? she said.
Four members of the department, including Pomeroy, Detective Marc Bowering and Sgts. Michael Adcock and Ed Hastings, recently attended a seminar sponsored by the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association and LifeLock. Held in Lewiston in July, a large gathering of officers, prosecutors and bankers learned tactics and tested some of the equipment used by criminals, she said.
Every 31 minutes a murder takes place in the United States but a victim falls prey to identity theft every 8.7 seconds, Pomeroy said, quoting conference materials.
Sometimes obtaining information from a victim can be as easy as walking by them, she said.
One small device tested by participants can read the numbers of some credit cards when the thief simply walks by the person, she said. It's similar to E-ZPass on the turnpike. The cards contain a chip that eliminates the need for swiping it. The chip is represented by a small icon, a speaker with sound waves, in the left-hand corner of the card.
A dummy card using the credit cardholder's numbers can be reproduced within five minutes, Pomeroy said.
People with these cards are advised to carry wallets with metal linings to protect the card and to not carry one while traveling abroad.
The seminar also mentioned that thieves wash ink off checks.
Payments left in a mailbox can fall prey to a thief. The ballpoint pen ink can be washed off the check. The wash takes only the ink. Everything else stays and it looks fine, Pomeroy said. Once it's dry, the thief can then write a payment to anyone for any amount.
The advice is to write checks with a black gel pen and not leave them in the mailbox, she said.
?It's one step to take to be a little safer,? she said.
Even an office photocopier can provide private information. Each machine has a database that needs to be wiped down or destroyed. A simple purchase of a used machine for $50 could provide valuable information, she said.
While LifeLock statistics indicate Maine is 48th nationally for reported identity thefts with 503 cases reported in 2011, the reporting or lack of it may not give a clear picture. Seminar participants were encouraged to report all complaints to the Federal Trade Commission.
Awareness of current scams is the first line of defense. The FTC's website at ftc.gov has information on scams, she said. Other sites are idtheftcenter.org, antiphishing.org and phishing@irs.gov.
abryant@sunjournal.com
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