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The Union County Sheriff's Office would like to inform all Union County of what to look for in potential cyber crimes and how to prevent fraud. If you feel like you are a victim of fraud please call our office at 704-283-3789. Below are some tips that will help you prevent fraud.

Phishing Scams

Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking a link or opening an attachment. You might get an unexpected email or text message that looks like it's from a company you know or trust, like a bank or a credit card, or utility company. The message could be a scammer, who might do the following:

  • Say they've noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts (they haven't).
  • Claim there's a problem with your account or your payment information (there isn't).
  • Say you need to confirm some personal or financial information (you don't).
  • Want you to click on a link to make a payment (but the link has malware).

Non Payment/ Non Delivery Scams

  • In a non-delivery scam, a buyer pays for goods or services they find online, but those items are never received. Conversley, a non-payment scam involves goods and services being shipped, but the seller is never paid. 
  • Be careful how you pay. never wire money directly to a seller. Avoid paying for items with pre-paid gift cards. In these scams, a "seller" will ask you to send them a gift card number and PIN. instead of using that gift card for your payment, the scammer will steal the funds, and you'll never recieve your item. 
  • Cryptocurrency/ Bitcoin- Cryptocurrency by design is decentralized and unregulated. there are no tools at the local or state level available to compel cryptocurrency exchanges to produce records pursuant to criminal investigations. Addtionally, cryptocurrency exchanges do not have the means to withdraw funds from privately owned cryptocurrency wallets. All transactions are completed at the user's risk.

 

Extortion/Romance Scam

  • A romance scam involves a scammer who frequents social media sites and engages in conversations with senior citizens. The conversations get in depth, and they wait on you to reveal a life changing event (loss of longtime spouse or family member).
  • Recent trends indicate younger adults and teenagers are being targeted by extortion scammers in what is being labled as "sextortion". The reason is younger adults and teenagers are more likely to to share sexually explicit photographs with strangers.

 

Personal Data Breach

  • A personal data breach means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, personal data
  • Data breaches can expose personal indentifying information for thousands, millions, or even billions of people, to include names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, social security numbers, bank account information, family information. 
    2024 Data breaches included AT&T, Dell,  and Bank of America.

 

Jury Duty/ Court Summons Scams

  • Jury duty and court summons scams often result in the potential victim being contacted by someone claiming to either with law enforcement, or someone claiming to work in the court system. The scam usually involves a victim being contacted and told they failed to appear for jury duty or failed to appear in court for being served with a court summons. The scammer usually tells the victim an arrest warrant has been issued, and to avoid being arrested, payments are required to cover court fees. 
  • Once a legitimate arrest warrant has been issued, law enforcement can't offer you the option of paying your way out of it. If you feel that you are being targeted by this type of scam, contact your primary law enforcement agency. Please look up the contact information for your primary law enforcement agency yourself, and do not rely on the contact information provided to by the scammer. Scammers involved with this type of scam often have phone numbers that closely resemble those of legitimate law enforcement agencies, and often set up pre-recorded messages and voicemails that sound legitimate. 

 

Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams

  • Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams involve being contacted either by phone, email, text, or a letter saying you won sweepstakes, lottery, or prizes. they ask you to pay money or give them your account information to ge the prize.
  • You have to pay to get your prize. If someone tells you to pay upfront taxes, shipping and handling charges, or processing fees to get your prize, you are dealing with a scammer.
  • Paying increases your odds of winning. Real sweepstakes are free and winning is by chance. It is illegal for someone to pay to increase your odds of winning. 
  • You have to give your financial information. There is no reason to ever give your bank account or credit card number to claim a prize. If this information is required to receive a prize, it is a scam. 

 

Ways to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

  • Freeze your credit with all three major credit bureaus- Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. this restricts access to your records so no new lines of credit can be opened without you first unfreezing your credit. 
  • Use strong passwords for online accounts. Don't rely on security questions to keep your account safe. your mother's maiden name and your pet's name are not hard to find out.
  • Many financial institutions offer alerts when transactions are made on your accounts. Allow these notifications so if someone gains access to your accounts and starts making financial transactions, you can cancel your cards or freeze your accounts.
  • Check your credit reports regularly. Equifax, Experian, and Transunion each typically allow one free credit report per year. Consider doing one credit report every four months. 
  • Identity Theft Protection Services are offered through companies such as Life Lock, ID Shield, or other similar companies. These services are not guaranteed to protect against Identity Theft 100% of the time but most offer help in cleaning up the mess cause by Identity Theft.