The Dallas Police Department’s Financial Investigations Unit has noticed an increase in the number of residents’ complaints regarding a variety of phone and email scams.  The type of scams being reported are not new and may vary, but the current, most common scams are related to COVID-19, the IRS, police, social security, and other types of variations.  The scammer’s underlying request can be to purchase gift cards and will request the gift card numbers be provided back to the scammer to resolve the scam issue. 

The Dallas Police Department is WARNING citizens that no police, federal, or business entity will call you requesting gift cards to resolve an issue. For more information on these scams, please check the Consumer Alert Blog Post from the Federal Trade Commission provided below. 

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2020/03/now-more-ever-spot-scams-ftcscambingo

Also contact the Justice Department which recently enacted the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline to help. Call 1-866-720-5721 or email disaster@leo.gov to report COVID-19 fraud.

Be wary of malicious websites and apps pretending to track COVID19 cases worldwide. Criminals are constructing these websites and apps to infect and lock devices until payment is received. Report it to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov and if it’s a cyber scam, submit your complaint through https://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx.

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