Home Antioch Antioch Police Alerts Community About “Green Dot” Card Scam

Antioch Police Alerts Community About “Green Dot” Card Scam

by ECT

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Recently the Antioch Police Department has received reports of fraud involving the use of Green Dot cards. Victims have been contacted by telephone under various rouses: receiving calls from subjects representing themselves as family members who are in trouble and need assistance or by persons presenting themselves as agents of the court or a government agency.

Specifically offenders have called victims representing themselves as family members who have been arrested and need bail money, or have represented themselves as agents with the IRS who have knowledge of or claim the victim owes back taxes.

The offenders provide the victim with a dollar amount needed to pay a debt or to help the family member. Victims are instructed to purchase and load Green Dot cards with moneys to pay the fraudulent fee. Once the cards are loaded, the victim is instructed to call the offender and provide the Green Dot card number. When the offender receives the Green Dot card number they are able to withdraw monies virtually undetected.

The offender sometimes provides the victim with a telephone number for contact. Often the number does not have a local area code. The telephone numbers are active, but many times are computer generated telephone numbers or “burner” phones. This means these numbers are untraceable.

If you receive any calls where a person poses as a family member in trouble, you should immediately end the call and recontact the represented family member to verify they made the call. Remember if a person is arrested and needs bail posted, you must seek the aid of a Bail Bond service. Further, most local and federal authorities will not have citizens load Green Dot cards to pay bills.

If you receive such a call, seek additional information such as the office address, full name of person you’re speaking with, his/her supervisor’s name and office telephone number. You should further attempt to verify this information via internet search and/or by calling the agency directly.

Lastly, DO NOT provide personal information over the telephone, even if you’re asked to verify personal information.

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1 comment

Theresa Oct 23, 2014 - 8:04 am

I have had 2 calls from them The guys name was Mr. Clark he said he is with the United States Treasury Office and ! other call from the courts. They have left message on my recorder!!!

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