Police Warning Locals About Two Scams That Surfaced In Area

HERCULES, CA - The Hercules Police Department is cautioning locals to be wary of fraud after two different scams were reported on Wednesday.

The first was reported at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday by a Hercules woman who claimed to have been scammed through an online mystery shopper application, according to police. She reported that she had applied to be a mystery shopper on Feb. 5 and had been given instructions to cash a $990 money order using her bank account before sending it to another party through Western Union.

The victim complied and later learned the money order was fraudulent but her transfer had gone through.

Hercules police said this crime is prevalent for those applying for mystery shopper or work-from-home sales jobs online. Police advise that residents check that a money order is cleared before sending any money.

But such an instruction should be regarded as suspicious regardless, police said.

Another Hercules fraud case started with a man with a Pinole phone number calling the police department’s main office up to 15 times around 2 p.m. demanding that officers go to a certain location.

When officers contacted the person who the phone number belonged to, the individual had a different voice than the earlier caller. The person said he had received a number of calls from someone - whose described voice matched the earlier caller - claiming to be from the IRS, police said.

The victim was told police would arrest him if he did not send the suspect money. This same suspect then harassed the police department when the victim refused, police said. Hercules police wished to remind locals that this is not part of IRS procedure.

The suspect in these cases relies on scaring the victim through various means, police said.

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