Van Beek: Knock, knock, who’s there?
So, you think you’re too smart to be scammed … think again.
The phone rings. The voice on the other end says, “I’m calling to let you know that there is a warrant out for your arrest.”
Shocked, you respond in disbelief. “What are you talking about? I haven’t done anything illegal.”
They say, “You ignored a subpoena to report for jury duty and the judge has issued a warrant for your arrest. But before we come out, I wanted to allow you to pay your bail, to avoid having to get processed into jail in the middle of the night. We can easily take care of it tonight with a credit card or bank transfer.”
You don’t quite understand what’s happening, but putting up bail now, without going through an arrest tonight is certainly better, and will deal with the rest of it in the morning.
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He sends you a text with a copy of the warrant. It looks official, right down to the emblems and signatures. Yet, out of caution, you ask for the guy’s name. He says he’s Detective John Anderson with the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
What your caller didn’t realize is that he should have done his homework before dialing this number, and you are just playing along to see how far he will go.
“Who is the sheriff”? The caller gets agitated and says, he’s done playing games with you and if you don’t pay up, he’s coming out to arrest you.
You respond, “My name is James van Beek, and I am the sheriff of Eagle County.” Dial tone.
Yes, even I get scam calls. There was one recently that came in early in the morning. The caller ID said it was from the U.S. Post Office. The caller said they were calling about a package I was sending overseas, stating that I underpaid the postage and the package was going to be returned, but that they can easily cover the small difference now, with a credit card payment.
The information they provided me was spot-on with completely accurate information about sender and recipient addresses. I gave them my credit card information. A few minutes later, upon reflection, something didn’t seem quite right. I put a hold on my card until I could check it out with my local post office.
When I inquired, I was told that the package was fine and on its way; they had not called me. Thankfully, I reacted quickly, and no charges were made on my card. Even with all of my training, under the right circumstances, and not fully awake, I could get scammed. The level of sophistication is remarkable.
My son, who is in the military, received a phone call late one night from his Grandpa, who was having a medical emergency and didn’t have his wallet or phone with him. He was in urgent need of money for medical care. The despair in his voice was so upsetting. This was the voice of the man who took him hunting, who would tell him off-color jokes, and who comforted him during difficult times. He knew this voice well and could sense the degree of urgency.
He immediately called me to ask about Grandpa and how he should handle this. As it turns out, his grandfather was just fine. The voice was generated by artificial intelligence. He didn’t question the call’s authenticity because that voice was absolutely that of Grandpa … except, it was a scam.
A local, who had posted an ad for a rental, received a call from someone abroad who was looking to move to Vail. He sounded young and nervous about making such a major move but was excited and wanted information on the community and other things that someone might inquire about in arranging to move to a new country. The property owner was happy to provide any information he could, and they settled on a lease agreement. The young man wanted to make the deposit payment via bank transfer since he was still located abroad. The owner gave him his bank details … and $20,000 immediately disappeared from his account. Through a series of transfers, the money became untraceable.
There are many of these scams surfacing across the county. The level of sophistication of today’s con is mind-boggling. Even the most intelligent people will fall prey to its detailed approach, often utilizing an emotional hook.
Reported in Reader’s Digest, according to the Federal Trade Commission, just AI voice scams alone have stolen up to $2.6 billion from Americans in the past year. They go on to say, to carry out an AI scam call, criminals only need a 5-10 second audio recording of a loved one’s voice, such as a clip from a voicemail, or social media post, like YouTube or Facebook. Then they feed it to an artificial intelligence tool that learns the person’s voice patterns, pitch, and tone, and then realistically simulates the voice. These tools are widely available and even free.
There is also a “Can you hear me?” scam. By getting you to answer, “Yes” to that question, scammers can record your affirmative answer, then use that recording to claim you agreed to purchase some fraudulent program. The Better Business Bureau warns, “If a caller asks, ‘Can you hear me?’ just hang up.”
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These calls will come in from impersonators claiming to be the IRS, your bank, tech support, charities, debt collectors, utility companies, and others. We must be extra cautious.
To reduce the number of potential scam calls, register your phone number with the FTC’s National “Do Not Call” Registry (DoNotCall.gov). You may register online or call 1-888-382-1222. If you still receive telemarketing calls after registration, they are probably scams.
Stay safe and when in doubt, especially about arrest warrants, please contact our office directly. We will not be calling you about an arrest and certainly will not be asking for payments over the phone.
James van Beek is the Eagle County sheriff. You can reach him at james.vanbeek@eaglecounty.us.
