By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green Police Division is advising local residents to not ignore gut feelings. If something smells fishy, it probably is.
During a recent one-week period, eight scams were reported to BGPD. And police know there are far more people scammed who are too embarrassed to report it.
So police are suggesting that people use common sense, like …
- Don’t fall for it when a “federal agent” demands money to keep a drug cartel from showing up at your house.
- Don’t exchange cash for Bitcoin to send to someone as bond to get a family member out of jail.
- And don’t send nude pictures to someone you’ve met online. But if you really feel compelled to do so – make sure your face isn’t in the photo.
Bowling Green residents fell for these scams and more so far this month. In the past, most of the scams reported involved unsuspecting older people who weren’t especially tech savvy.
But the latest rash seems to be targeting young people.
“It’s not like this is some sophisticated scam,” BGPD Lt. Ryan Tackett said, explaining that Bitcoin cannot be used to release someone on bond, and nobody accepts I-Tune cards for a car payment.
“Those are not legal tender to purchase any item,” he said.
If an online deal seems fishy, go old school.
“If something seems too good to be true, call a friend, call your mother, call your father, call your children,” Tackett said.
Buy items the old-fashioned way. Make sure you see the car before you pay for it. Make sure you meet the puppy before you pay its veterinarian bills.
And don’t allow anyone on the phone or online to pressure you into acting immediately, he advised.
“Ask if you can call them back. If they say, ‘no, this has to be done now,’ then something’s fishy,” Tackett said.
And resist requests for nude photos from someone you’ve met online.
“Don’t send nude photos of yourself. They always ask for money and always say they are going to send it to friends and family,” Tackett said.
In two of the cases reported to police, employees at businesses noticed people buying large amounts of gift cards or Bitcoin and suspected they were being scammed. In both cases, the employees informed the customers or reported the incidents to police.
Though recovering money stolen through scams is often a lost cause, it’s good to report it to police.
“I think people are embarrassed or ashamed they got swindled for thousands of dollars,” Tackett said. “But if we can stop other people from being swindled, that would be great.”
Following are the eight scams reported by Bowling Green residents earlier this month:
On May 2, a 19-year-old man reported being scammed while trying to buy a car.
The man told police he was on Facebook Marketplace when he came across a listing that was from eBay. He corresponded by email about a Chevy Tahoe with the alleged seller, using the name Mildred Powell.
The Bowling Green man was told he needed to send $1,000 as an insurance deposit for the vehicle to be transported to Ohio. Thinking it could be a scam, the man spoke with an eBay representative who told him that a security deposit was not an unusual request.
So the local man decided to send the deposit to the alleged vehicle seller. He was told to buy and send two $500 Apple gift cards. He bought the gift cards and was instructed to send pictures of the backs of the cards with all identifying numbers.
After sending the photos, the BG man decided to Google online vehicle scams – where he found the exact description of how he was scammed.
The man said he immediately contacted Apple and was told to file a police report. The BGPD officer told the man he would contact eBay and Facebook to notify them of the scam.
On May 3, a 32-year-old man came to the police station to file a report about a scam involving a female he met on the dating website, Hinge. The man said he thought he did a good job verifying the female was legitimate, so when she asked him to sext her, he sent her nude photos that included his face.
The man said he was then messaged by the woman, who correctly identified where he worked, his friends and family members. The woman said she wanted $2,000 or she would send out his nude photos to his friends, family and workplace.
She specifically asked for Bitcoin to be sent via CashApp, which the Bowling Green man did.
He then came to the police station to report the scam. An officer advised him to stop communicating with the scammer and to contact police if they continue to harass him.
On May 5, a 22-year-old man reported to police that he had joined a Facebook group that allegedly worked to rescue animals. Within the group chat, a person posted that she was selling Golden Retriever puppies.
The Bowling Green man agreed to purchase a puppy from the person for $500, with him paying half upfront and half when he picked up the puppy. However, the online scammer told him that after the puppy was born it began having medical issues, so they requested money for the puppy’s medical care.
The scammer reportedly sent the local man a copy of the vet bill, and he ended up sending an additional $1,420 via Apple Pay and Zell. He then arranged to meet with the alleged dog seller in Monroe to pick up the puppy.
The resident at the address he was sent to stated they did not know anything about a dog or the person he had been messaging. The scammer blocked the BG man on all forms of social media and banking apps. He reported the scam to the Monroe Police Department, where he was advised to file a report with BGPD as well.
On May 6, a 33-year-old woman notified police about a phone call she received back in March, when she was advised that she owed money due to a court case in which she was involved. The caller gave her a case number and said a “legal courier” would be bringing documents to her.
Then last week she got a call from someone claiming to be with “Hart & Associates Group,” and asking for her bank account number to settle the debt. She was reportedly told that she owed $2,982.62.
The Bowling Green woman reportedly gave the scammers her bank account number. She then researched “Hart & Associates” and found it to be an imposter. She called her bank and advised them of the scam.
Her bank was able to stop the fraudulent transaction, and the woman transferred her money into a new account.
On May 6, an 18-year-old male came to the police station to report a scam. He stated he met a male calling himself “Carlos” online through an app called Grindr. The two exchanged nude photos, but the BG man did not think he included his face in the photos.
The local man then began receiving messages from a number he didn’t recognize, with the sender stating he would release the BG man’s nude photos and messages to his friends and family, unless he paid $1,000.
The sender also included screenshots of some of the local man’s Facebook friends.
Police explained this is a known scam, and advised the BG man to not pay the money or have any further contact with the person messaging him. The incident was documented with a police report.
On May 8, a 22-year-old man filed a report with BGPD after he exchanged illicit pictures with someone he met on the Grindr app. The scammer told the man to send $1,000 or they would send his photos out to friends and family.
The man said he negotiated the amount down to $700, and sent that via CashApp, but the money didn’t go through because of the account being frozen due to fraudulent activity.
The scammers then asked the BG man for more money in the form of gift cards. He went to buy the gift cards at Walgreens, where the cashier told the man he was being scammed and should go to the police station instead.
Police told the man to immediately stop communicating with the scammers, and they would likely go away. The officer explained that the scammers usually don’t send out the photos – they just move on to the next person.
The local man told police that the pictures of his friends and family, sent to him by the scammers, were not people he knew. Police advised him to run a credit check on himself in a couple weeks, and contact BGPD if the harassment continues.
On May 9, a 35-year-old man called police and was very distraught, saying he was contacted by an alleged federal agent who told him a package of drugs from a drug cartel was intercepted with his name on it.
The scammer told the BG man there was a non-disclosure agreement in place and he could not speak to anyone about the issue. The man was reportedly told he needed to send the agent money to help change his identification before the cartel showed up to his house.
The local man took the day off and went to Cleveland, the closest location of his credit union. He reportedly withdrew a “significant” amount of money – all of his savings minus $50 – as instructed by the agent on the phone.
He took the $5,600 to a specific BP gas station, where the scammer told him to use an Athena ATM to buy Bitcoin to send it to him. The BG man showed police the receipts for two transactions – one for $5,396 and the other for $358.
He was told agents would be sent to his door the next morning with documents, but they never showed. The local man said he tried to call the phone number back but it had been disconnected. Police advised him to fill out a scam/fraud report on the Ohio Attorney General’s website.
On May 9, an employee of a gas station on West Wooster Street called police to report a suspicious incident involving a female who used the Bitcoin machine four times in 2½ hours. The station employee asked the woman if she was OK, and the woman said she was fine.
Video footage showed the woman and her vehicle’s license plate. The video also showed the woman at the Bitcoin machine for extended periods and on her phone for the entire time.
Police contacted the owner of the car, who said his wife had been scammed. He told police that she had also deposited money into another Bitcoin machine at a gas station on North Prospect Street.
The woman, age 36, said she received a phone call from someone claiming to be with Bowling Green Police Division, stating that her husband had been arrested. She was instructed that she had to purchase and send Bitcoin to post bond for her husband.
The woman told police the caller said he was going to patch her through to BG Municipal Court for a three-way call, which linked to her husband’s phone number. A man came on the phone claiming to be her husband’s attorney.
Following instructions, the woman bought and transferred a total of $15,960 worth of Bitcoin. Her husband said when he started seeing the transactions from the bank account he tried to call and text his wife, but he could not get through because the scammers kept her on the phone.
The couple was given the link to file a report with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, and asked to let police know if they are contacted again by the scammers.
