YCSO CONTINUES TO REMIND ALL CITIZENS: DON'T BECOME A VICTIM OF SCAMS

Published on April 03, 2024

The message is given over and over, but bears repeating...don't become a victim of a fraud or scam!

YCSO Fraud Investigations official Ron Norfleet on April 2nd told a packed house at Ativo Senior Living of Prescott Valley "slow down, you don't have to do something right now". Norfleet, who offers his "Frauds and Scams" presentations to community groups and senior living facilities free of charge, always stresses the importance of taking your time if you receive a phone call, text, or e-mail requesting some immediate financial action. 

Norfleet told the crowd that scammers are getting more sophisticated by the day, including using artificial intelligence to clone someone's voice that then can be used, for example, to "prove" they are holding one of your relatives hostage. That's the centerpiece of the current "grandparent scam", where the caller claims that the person's grandchild is in trouble and needs instant money via a wire transfer to help them out of it. Norfleet says the best thing to do is immediately hang up and then call that grandchild (or other relative) to verify they are ok. When he asked the crowd how many had ever actually had a relative kidnapped during their lifetime, not one hand went up. 

Other current scams include a caller claiming to be from a law enforcement agency (including YCSO) asking the person called to send money (many times through gift cards purchased at a local retail store) or they will be arrested and jailed for missing jury duty, failing to take care of a traffic citation, or some other phony claim. YCSO will never call a citizen and ask for money, under any circumstance. Don't rely on the caller ID on your phone, even if it says "Yavapai County Sheriff's Office/Department"; scammers have the means to use phony IDs to deceive you.

Norfleet always recommends that citizens do not give out their bank or other financial information over the phone, by text, or in e-mails, and never click on links in suspicious e-mails or text messages, no matter how urgent it may seem to answer. He has a long list of tragic incidents where people lost large amounts of money, even their entire life savings, to a fraud or scam. In most cases (including wire transfers and Bitcoin), there is no way to trace the money and the victim will never get it back. 

If you have questions or if you suspect someone is trying to defraud you, contact Ron Norfleet at YCSO at 928-771-3299.