Giles County, Virginia Sheriff's Office

Enforcement Alerts & Scam Alerts

The Sheriff’s Office has received several reports of attempted scams during the past several months.  Some of the scams we have seen recently include:

Identity Theft

• Identity thieves employ a variety of tactics to obtain personal information from their victims including:
• Telephone impersonation:  The victim receives a telephone call from someone claiming to be from their bank.  The caller tells the intended victim they need to verify information on their account, including account numbers, social security numbers, birthday, and more.
• Email impersonation:  This scam is similar to the telephone scam above, but involves an email instead of a telephone call.  These emails look authentic and often contain the bank’s logo, but are definitely not legit.
• “Problem with your account”:  In this scam, the victim receives notice that their bank, credit card, Paypal, or other account has been breached or is past due.  When the recipient follows the link to dispute the notice, they are prompted to provide personal information that is used by the criminal.

Counterfeit Cashiers and Travelers Checks

• Several people have received counterfeit cashiers and/or travelers checks.  These come in as part of any number of scams:
• In one, the victim receives notice they have won a sweepstakes.  To claim their winnings, the victim has to send in a “filing fee” or something similar.  The sweepstakes company sends the victim a counterfeit cashier's check to cover the “filing fee”, plus some extra.  The sweepstakes company instructs the “winner” to cash or deposit the check and wire the “filing fee” to them.
• Another scam is where someone will claim to be in another country and have no way to cash travelers checks.  The scammer offers to send the checks to the victim, who cashes them and wires most of the money (typically about 75% or so) to the scammer.  The leftover 25% is a gift to the victim for their trouble.
• A third scam goes something like this:  A person advertises an item for sale on the internet for $800.  They receive an email and subsequent telephone call from someone claiming to be interested in buying the item.  The caller says they buy and sell stuff on the internet and that a person in Kansas (or somewhere) owes them $4000, which they were going to pay using a cashier’s check.  The scammer claims he has no way to cash the cashier's check and offers to have the $4000 check sent to the victim, asking the victim to cash the check, keep the $800 for the item plus an additional $200 for his trouble, and wire the remaining $3000.
• In all of these cases, the intent of the criminal is to have the victim cash the check and wire part of the money to them (often under a fictitious name).  The wire transaction is instantaneous, while it can take several weeks before the check is identified as counterfeit.  Meanwhile, the scammer is long gone after picking up the wired transaction.

Nigerian Scams (also called 419 Scams)

• The target receives an email or letter from someone claiming to be an exiled government official (sometimes a member of the ousted royal family) who has managed to sneak government money out of their country.  The “exiled official” wants you to help by providing a bank account they can transfer the money into.  The victim is enticed by the promise of a large monetary reward.

The Sheriff’s Office advises everyone to be wary of “too good to be true” offers such as these.  Never give personal information over the telephone or internet unless you are sure of the identity of the person/entity to whom you are providing it.

Banks will not contact you regarding your personal information – they already know your account numbers and other information.  It is not likely that a total stranger will give you money or be willing to pay more than the asking price for something you have advertised for sale.

Just remember the old adage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

For more information on these and other internet crimes, visit the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.