SEYMOUR, Ind. – The Seymour Police Department (SPD) was asked to do a welfare check on an elderly woman on Wednesday. The caller stated that someone had phoned the female and told her not to alert the police but to go to Walmart and contact them when she was there.
SPD found the woman in her car at Walmart with two gift cards and she was on her cell phone reading the card information to someone. The officer instructed her to stop communicating with the person. He then escorted her to the service desk where Walmart associates were, fortunately, able to fully refund a total of $1,000 from the compromised cards before they were used.
It was discovered that the caller had reached out to her at least eight times over several days and built a fairly good rapport by producing believable information about her. He claimed he was an IRS agent and progressively got more aggressive with each call. He told her he needed to collect payment for a new car someone had fraudulently purchased with her information. The caller used a spoof-number, ultimately traced to an overseas location.
Law enforcement urges you to not speak with anonymous callers. Scam artists prey on kind-hearted people to sell their lies. If someone tells you, “don’t call the police,” then definitely call the police asap.
