June 11, 2010

The Fluvanna County Sheriff’s Office is alerting the public about two scams that are circulating in the area.

The First is commonly referred to as the “Granny Scam”. In this scam, the scammer calls an elderly person and poses as their grandchild. The scammer claims to be in dire need of money for bail or some other emergency. The scammer may have the victim call someone posing as an attorney. They will ask for money, typically between $2,000 and $4,000, to be wired via Western Union or Money Gram to a location overseas.

Many of these scams originate in Canada. In the end they are fraudulent and the victim looses their money.

The second scam is a wave of Mortgage/Loan Modification scams. These target those who are already behind on their mortgage payments. The scammers offer to serve as agents on behalf of the victim and require payment for their services. The scammers will obtain all the victim’s financial information and even have the victim complete financial “contracts”. The scammers will advise the victim cease all contact with their mortgage lender and to stop making any mortgage payments.

In the end the victim is worse off, out of the money they provided to the scammer, and now even further behind on their payments.

Recent flyers (view images here) in the area reference a program called the “New Start Program” and are “signed” by a Jim Bowman, Attorney at Law. Also avoid any programs from the Meltzer Legal Group and the Crowder Law Group. For more information visit LoanScamAlert.org.