Unmasking Local Fraud: Scams You Need to Know About
With the rise in scams around Mason County and neighboring areas, we believe it’s crucial to keep our community informed and vigilant. Let’s spread the word and protect each other from these deceptive scams.
Social engineering is a type of fraud where attackers manipulate individuals into giving out confidential information or performing actions that could compromise their security. These scams are known to exploit human psychology rather than their technical vulnerabilities.
Phishing- A widely known scam where attackers will send an email that appears to be from a legitimate source, tricking you into providing information like passwords or card information.
Vishing- Another widely known scam where attackers will use phone calls to deceive you into giving them your personal information.
Smishing- A commonly used scam that is conducted via SMS/text message. Attackers will send texts that contain malicious links or requests for personal information.
There are 3 red flags to make yourself aware of when it comes to these social engineering scams.
Red Flag 1: Is the person asking you to do something or provide them with something?
Ex: Are they asking you to pay a fine or buy a gift card?
Red Flag 2: The person is creating a sense of urgency by telling you something needs to be done in a short time frame.
Ex: Typically, they say it needs to be done as soon as possible or within the next hour to get you to act quickly.
Red Flag 3: They want you to be afraid of something that might happen to you or promise you a reward if you do it.
Ex: The attacker will tell you that if you don’t send the money then you will go to jail or must pay a bigger fine, or they might tell you that if you pay the money, you will win more money.
There is a phrase that our Chief Information Officer said that security experts often apply to situations like this “Never trust, always verify”. You should always be taking a minute to think about the phone call, email or text you received. Does it make sense what they are asking or telling you to do. Does the consequence make sense? If you question anything of that nature, you should ALWAYS hang up the phone and find the phone number that just called you or contact your financial institution to help you.
Recent Scams that we have posted about:
Mason PUD 3- Scammers are actively calling threatening to disconnect customers if they don’t pay immediately. Call the main number at PUD 3 if you think there is an issue. 360-426-8255.
Good to Go and WSDOT- Good to Go! Will not request payment on any website but www.MyGoodToGo.com. Do not click unknown links in emails or texts. They also will never include a specific amount owed in a text message to you.
Mason County Sheriff’s Office- Scammers are impersonating MCSO deputies, claiming there are warrants out for your arrest and demanded payment over the phone or face jail time. MCSO will never ask for payment over the phone.
Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office- Scammers are spoofing phone numbers or calling from blocked numbers claiming to be an official from Grays Harbor County. They falsely claim that the citizen has failed to show up for jury duty and has an arrest warrant. The person is then instructed to go to their bank and withdraw money in cash and deposit to a local Bitcoin ATM. Police or officials from the government will never ask for money over the phone or in the form of Bitcoin.
We always suggest, if you feel you have fallen victim to a scam then you should report the incident. You can report these things directly to law enforcement, your local financial institution or the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
