Prospect state trooper warns residents of scam

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PROSPECT — Resident State Trooper Matt Comeau warned residents of a telephone scam after a local 78-year-old man lost more than $15,000.

According to a news release, on March 4 police investigated a telephone scam in which the man, who wasn’t identified, was defrauded of more than $15,000. A male caller represented himself as being from the Waterbury Police Department, and had personal knowledge of the man’s family, including family names and addresses, police said.

The caller told the man that money needed to be wired for bond, and to wire it to locations in South America, the release states. The man sent the money via Western Union with no chance for it to be recovered, police said.

Comeau said with all of the social networking websites and other search engines available online, these types of scams are becoming more prevalent, especially against older people. People should verify the information by calling police or checking with a family member, he said.

Anyone with information can call Comeau at (203) 758-6150.

2 COMMENTS

  1. By the way, do you have a record of the phone number? Maybe we can already get it blocked as early a now so we don’t get a call. I’ve had a few suspicious calls before and reported phone numbers at Callercenter.com. That scammer could be the one of the callers. I guess we’ll never know.

  2. Wow! $15, 000 is a lot of money! It must have been hard to give away that much for nothing. I feel terrible for the man.

    This is why I always remind family and friends to be cautious about anonymous incoming phone calls. If it’s suspicious, hang up. If you stay longer, you’d only let the man convince or threaten you to give in.