Scam Alert #4080: Random people who call you on the phone can be shady

There are, as we know, plenty of people out there trying to scam folks out of their hard-earned money and life savings.

Not all of them work in the Trump administration, as it turns out.

Sorry, had to get that dig in there.

This story, about lower-level, but no-less-dangerous, scammers involves a family member who recently got a call from someone purporting to be a Waynesboro Police officer, telling her that one of her close relatives had just been charged in an accident and was in custody, and that someone would need to pay $8,000 in cash for a bond to get her out of jail.

I know some of you reading this are wanting to snark here – of course that’s a scam.

I understand that these things can get emotional in the moment, so I’d say, let’s cut her some slack here.

The family member hung up the phone, and headed to her bank to withdraw the $8,000 in cash.

Fortunately for her, the teller asked her why she was making such a big withdrawal, and when the family member told the story, the teller and a manager were able to track down the truth, and prevent the relative from being scammed.

Kudos to the quick-thinking teller here.

We get notices from local law enforcement agencies on the regular about how these kinds of scams are common, and that they want to make clear that, cops won’t call you out of the blue to tell you that you need to pay cash for something – an outstanding warrant, a family member in jail, whatever.

A good scammer can be persuasive on the phone, of course.

It’s easy to just say, don’t fall for it, but it’s harder to do.

Maybe, if you’re inclined to want to help out in a situation like the one that confronted the family member in this story, run it by somebody after you get off the phone.

Also, be careful what you post about yourself on social media.

In extreme cases, we’re hearing of stories of the homes of celebrities and high-profile athletes being targeted when they’re known to be away from home because of information they’ve made publicly known about themselves on social media.

It’s not just big-name celebs and athletes who get targeted; any of us can be targets.

The people who want to separate others from their money are scouring the interwebs for whatever they can find to exploit the same as your family and friends are on your pages to try to keep up with what’s going on.

Maybe give some consideration to limiting who can see what on your socials, so the bad guys don’t get a free look at what you have in your house and what your schedule is.

Definitely don’t trust any old rando who calls telling you that you need to withdraw money to bail out a family member.

The cops aren’t going to do that.

I’ll conclude by throwing a blanket don’t trust anybody in here for good measure.

Seriously, it’s dog eat dog out there anymore.