News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Scammers hit the phone to Clay County residents the past few days masquerading as Amazon employees.
Scammers claimed residents had a $700 charge and needed their information to resolve their account issue. Sheriff Brandon Boone said one resident reported she believed the scammer and gave her account information.
“[They] wanted her to go to the dollar store to obtain a money card to take care of this,” Boone said. “Right after that happened we had three other calls in stating that the same thing happened to them.”
Boone said he received more phone calls after sharing the incident on Facebook. He said most of the scam victims were elderly.
Investigating scam calls like this is a challenge. Boone said a lot of them are usually not in the United States.
“The problem is is trying to track the information back,” Boone said. “A lot of the times the phone numbers are ‘burner phones,’ what we call them. When you call back they either won’t answer or they’ll change the number. It’s very difficult to track these people and try to prosecute them.”
Some of the residents did not have Amazon accounts and knew right away it was a scam. Boone urged citizens to call the sheriff’s department if they receive any more scam calls.
