Police warn of scams

The Griffin Police Department has released a statement about recent fraud attempts via telephone and warns citizens not to fall for the scams. Following is the CITY OF GRIFFIN POLICE DEPARTMENT press release:During the past few weeks the Griffin Police Department has received information regarding fraud attempts. Among some of the tactics being used are unsolicited phone calls and emails. The scammer will advise that you have won a grand prize and to claim your prize you must pay a processing fee. In most incidents the scammer will request that you utilize Western Union, a credit card or load a Green Dot card to pay the processing the fee. Of course once the fee has been processed there is no longer any communication. Clearly this is a scam. All taxes and fees required for any legitimate grand prize and/or lottery winnings are typically paid out of the prize money itself. The Griffin Police Department is recommending, as possible defenses to these types of scams, that you do the following: Do not open attachments from unknown email senders, for fear of downloading viruses. Do not reply to unsolicited phone calls/emails. If you have any interest in determining the legitimacy of the sender, do not ask them for contact information or click on hyperlinks. Research the real contact information and call the institution yourself. This insures actual contact with real representatives. Then inquire about the contact. Lastly you can contact your local police department and allow them to look at the contact with you in an effort to determine if they are scammers.