Denver Sheriff Department and Spoofing

Fall is in the air and I’ll be quite glad to experience some cooler temperatures.

Use the change in seasons to remind yourself to check your credit reports, which can help detect any inaccurate or incomplete information and also help detect if there was fraud on any accounts. By law, everyone is entitled to one free credit report every twelve months from each of the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Use annualcreditreport.com to access the reports -- only annualcreditreport.com is free of charge and should be the only website you use. Pulling your credit report will not affect your credit score.

It is important to note that, typically, children under the age of 18 will not have credit reports. I suggest you make sure by checking their information, as well. If your minor child does not have loans or credit cards and the report shows they do, it could indicate that your child is a victim of identity theft. Many people put a freeze on all three reporting agencies for their children as a safeguard against identity theft.

Click on this link to learn more about credit reports and scores.

Have a wonderful October!

Denver Sheriff Department and Spoofing

Spoofing is when a caller deliberately masks the number on your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Scammers often use this trick so the number appears to come from a neighbor, a local number or, as in recent scams, from the Denver Sheriff Department.

This scam has been active for at least the past year and does not seem to be going away. Here’s the scam: The department’s name and number appear on a victim’s caller ID. When the victim answers, the “Sheriff” tells them they have been served a subpoena for failing to appear in court and must pay a fine. In order to pay the fine, the victim must bring cash or bitcoin to the Lindsey Flannigan Courthouse, in person. Not only is this a scam, but it is very unsafe to meet someone who initiates a call to you, no matter what the circumstances.

Call volume to our fraud line from potential victims of this scam has escalated in the past few months. Unfortunately, we can only assume that there are people who have fallen for this scam. A Denver Deputy Sheriff will never request payment for not appearing in court, nor make any contact by phone. Further, a Deputy Sheriff would never suggest meeting someone on the street to pay cash or wire money for not appearing in court.

Keep in mind, that if you ever get an unexpected call from anyone, from the Denver Sheriff Department or anyone else, and they ask for any personal information or say you owe money, hang up. The caller is most likely a thief.

We encourage the community to be aware of these recent scams and alert family members and friends.

Call our Denver DA Fraud Line at 720-913-9179 if you think someone has tried to scam you, and, please, pass this information along to your friends and family.

Lost Pet Scam

Scammers are targeting owners of lost pets to extort cash or bitcoin. They get your phone number from lost dog posters or posts on Nextdoor. In one example the scammer called the owner claiming to be the animal shelter and said in order to retrieve the dog the owner would have to pay for a vaccine before the dog would be released. Animal shelters don’t operate that way.

A caller to our fraud line said she asked the finder to show her a picture of her Fiddo. The scammer pulled a photo of the breed of dog from the internet and blurred out the dog’s face. As if the owner would fall for that. Obviously, some scammers aren’t that smart.

Speaking of Nextdoor, the app can be very helpful for sharing neighborhood information, selling items, and looking for help, but it can also be an avenue for scammers. Use skepticism when reading these posts. Nextdoor recently posted a warning about scams surrounding bargain items. Read about that scam and others on Nextdoor here and here.

DeepFakes

A New Wave of Scams

We will continue to provide updates on ways that new technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), is being used by scammers.

Now enterDeepFakes. A deepfake is an image, video, or audio recording that is used to misrepresent someone doing or saying something that was not actually done or said. These video and audio recordings look and sound completely authentic.

Click here for a convincing deepfake example of the actor Morgan Freeman.

The video below provides a tip on how to keep from being a victim of a deepfake version of the grandparent scam.

What’s the word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-oPDvHrak

Do you suspect you've been scammed or exploited?

Report it to us by calling our Fraud Hotline.

Contact

The Denver DA's

FRAUD HOTLINE

720.913.9179

Denver District Attorney's Office | 303-913-9000 | 201 W. Colfax Ave. | DenverDA.org