Scammers suck! Please help my family through this

This is what happened to me. This scammer took $3000 from me. Someone has already given me $40 to help with food and stuff for my babies for the month as they cleared my bank account. I hate to even reach out for help but, this has really put a damper on my life. I’m forever grateful to anyone who can help. It’s horrible that people can be okay with doing this. And I hope eventually these people in India will be caught! Heres the story in the words of the Plattsburgh Police department... Hopefully this will help anyone else to not go through this..

Recently, the Plattsburgh Police Department has investigated several scams in which the scammer impersonates various representatives of law enforcement agencies. Typically, the scammer will report being a member of the FBI, the DEA, or the US Marshall Service. The scammer will provide actual names of real agents and will use various apps and programs to simulate real law enforcement phone numbers. The scammers contact members of the community and say that their social security number has been stolen or that they are the subject of arrest warrants for things like drug trafficking, money laundering, or human trafficking. The victims of this scam then are told that they need to empty their bank accounts and buy gifts cards, like Google Play cards, eBay cards, Amazon cards, and so on. The scammer then instructs the victims to send them the numbers of the cards so that they can get a new social security number or to confirm that they are not the subject of the arrest warrants. Some scammers are even taking this a step further and asking for illicit photos of the victims. These photos are asked so that they can confirm that the victim does not match the "wanted", (fake), suspect.

While this particular scam is more compelling than other scams in the past, it is still just that, a scam. We at the Plattsburgh Police Department want you all to know that we will never ask you to withdraw money and give it to us by means of a gift card or money order or any other way. We can think of virtually no law enforcement agency in the country that would do this. All money that is turned over to the Police Department results in a receipt being given to whoever gave the money. Furthermore, we will never contact anyone and tell them that they are the subject of an arrest warrant and they need to pay any amount of money, provide social security or banking information, or ask for any illicit photos. Our police officers conduct business via phone often, but will never ask for that type of information over the phone.

If you feel like you have been the victim of some type of fraudulent scam, please contact us or come to the PPD to report the incident. We are here to help. If you get a call and it doesn't seem quite right, come into the station, talk to one of our dispatchers or police officers and we will be happy to let you know if it is legitimate or not. Call us if you have any questions!