Ellwood City Residents Raise Awareness: Scam Calls

Caller ID spoofing and scam phone calls are at an all-time high and these calls are impacting many Ellwood City residents. Ellwood City Police Department received a call from Beverly Hazen about a possible scam phone call she received.

Hazen received a call from a man pretending to be her grandson. The man stated he had been arrested in Philadelphia for a DUI. The man wanted Hazen to send money to bail him out of jail. She felt odd about the situation and hung up on the man.

Hazen immediately called her grandson on his phone to check and make sure he was OK, which he was. Hazen called ECPD to tell the officers about the scam phone call and to raise awareness of what to do if someone else were to receive the same kind of call.

Many people in the Ellwood City area have been receiving a multitude of these calls, most of the calls show up on people’s caller ID’s as local business, police departments, a hospital or someone’s personal cellphone or home phone number. This is known as spoofing.

Under the Truth in Caller ID Act, Federal Communications Commission rules prohibit any person or entity from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value. If no harm is intended or caused, spoofing is not illegal.

Teressa Jones-Wojton of Ellwood City, has been receiving spoofing calls, which she feels obligated to answer due to formerly having a home-based business.

“I’ve been getting calls that show up as local numbers on the caller ID. they are calls about insurance and for auto warranties that I don’t have.,” Jones-Wojton said. “I answer the calls because I did have a home-based business. I was shocked when I called a couple of the people listed only to find out that the numbers were private numbers. One of the calls was from my place of employment.”

People feel that scammers are trying to reach a specific demographic. According to the Federal Trade Commission, Everyone is a potential target. Fraud isn’t limited to race, ethnic background, gender, age, education or income.

However, Some groups of people may be at a higher risk for receiving fraudulent calls. Older people may be targeted because the caller assumes they may live alone, have a nest egg, or may be more polite toward strangers.

Ellwood City Native, Denise Vesco Holfelder feels that the scammers are trying to target our older citizens.

“I get these kinds of calls a lot, I just hang up on them,” Vesco Holfelder said. “It is sad because they get our older citizens upset and confused, I truly think they target the older Generation.”

While some members of the community ignore the calls or just hang up on them, others are taking extra steps to prevent further calls. James Shenesky, Ellwood City resident has decided to take an extra step and download an app on his phone to block the numbers that are calling.

“I get calls every day, I like the ones that threaten to call the police, and I threaten to turn them over to the FBI that usually stops them for a while,” Shenesky said. “Also, I put an app on my phone called “MR. NUMBER.” You add numbers to it and it blocks them, so far so good.”

There is a handful of helpful phone apps on the market that people can download to protect, detect and block calls from possible scammers. People can also ask to be placed on the National Do Not Call Registry. If you are on the registry and you are still receiving calls hang up and report them to www.donotcall.gov.

If you receive a call that seems suspicious — don’t hesitate, hang up and report it. Do not give out any personal information over the phone to anyone you do not know and/or any company you have not verified. Companies like banks, The IRS and money transferring services such as Western Union or Money Gram will not call you soliciting for information.