Health & Fitness
Police Blog: Folks Fall for Email Scams from Nigeria and Jamaica
The AARP has put out a scam alert on what is called the 876 Area Code Scam.
Have you ever come home weary after a long day and sat down to check your email? You log on to your email account and the first email, in very bad English, is letting you know that you had a long lost uncle in Nigeria and that he left you 3 million pounds (that’s money).
His attorney, who sent you the email, says he requires 10,000 U.S. dollars be sent to him via Western Union to some weird address in Canada.
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This is from an actual email and people fall for these things every day. Delete it!
The AARP has put out a scam alert on what is called the 876 Area Code Scam. This scam is directed towards seniors. Your phone rings and the caller ID shows an 876 area code. The call appears to coming from the 876 area code in the U.S., but it’s the area code for Jamaica. If you don’t have friends, relatives or business contacts in Jamaica, then most likely it’s from a scammer.
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These scammers are very persistent and can be verbally abusive and even go as far as threatening victims with harm if they don’t send money.
According to the article, approximately 30,000 calls are made from Jamaica each day to the United States attempting to defraud American’s.
Basically, the victims are congratulated for winning the Jamaican lottery or a new car. They are advised to send upwards of $4,000 to process the winnings. The scammer says that once the funds are received, they will wire them the money. Guess what? You get nothing.
Officer Larry Jacobs is the Crime Prevention Officer for the Sandy Springs Police Department. He can be reached at ljacobs@sandyspringsga.gov.
