Bloomfield Township Woman Loses $5,000 in Scam

A Bloomfield Township woman lost $5,000 in an elaborate scam that included someone posing as an officer with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in a conference call after she questioned the authenticity of claims she owed the IRS money.

The woman, who was not identified, told authorities she suspected a scam when she followed up on an automated message from an individual claiming to be with the IRS, WWJ-CBS Detroit reports.

She was told transfer money to a re-loadable debit card or face immediate arrest. She questioned the authenticity of the report, but the number she was asked to call for a conference call to discuss the matter seemed to match that of the local sheriff’s office.

After a five-hour conference with the phony officials, she made the transaction.

Bloomfield Township police said in a statement that’s not how the IRS operates. In this instance, the criminals used a technique called “spoofing” in which they masqueraded as someone else by hacking the IP addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of other users.

“Unfortunately, the power of the internet and other technology allows criminals to easily create the illusion that they know more than they do,” police said in a statement. “Once criminals have your name they can easily determine where you live, then search for local stores, local police websites, phone numbers, and names of officials.”“That, coupled with the use of Google Street View, allows the criminal to appear as though they may be following the victim or at least know much about them, even being able to provide a description of the victim’s home,” police said. “The resulting fear convinces the victim to cooperate.”

“Never provide money or personal information over the phone, especially if the other person called you,” police said. “If the person on the other end asks for confirmation of some information you should respond by telling them that you only deal through the mail and if they are legitimate, they already have that information in their files.”