Police warn residents
of telephone, e-mail scams

Authorities on the local and state level have discovered new twists in recent weeks on old identity theft-style scams in which crooks have posed as agents of the city’s court system and the Internal Revenue service to solicit personal information from victims.
Philadelphia police have received reports of at least 35 court-related telephone scams since June 13. Each time, the male caller purported to be a court official and accused the victim of failing to show up for jury duty.
In each case the crook demanded to know the victim’s Social Security number, date of birth and financial account information under the threat of arrest. Most of his targets are senior citizens, although some are as young as their 20s.
In some cases, the caller identified himself by the name James Thomas. Police believe the caller used a local telephone directory to obtain the names, phone numbers and addresses of his targets.
Police warn citizens not to supply any unknown or suspicious caller or visitor with any personal information and to be particularly protective of their date of birth, Social Security number, credit or bank card numbers and bank account information.
Call the major crimes unit at 215-686-3396 to report to police any similar telephone scam.
Police also recommend that victims contact the three major credit bureaus, Trans Union, Experian and Equifax, to see if there has been any attempt to compromise their personal credit.
Individuals who receive a suspicious telephone call may also dial *57 immediately after the call to record the source number, date and time of the call. Police will then be able to retrieve the caller information.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett last week reported that residents have complained about receiving fraudulent e-mail messages in which the senders identify themselves as representatives of the IRS and instruct victims to submit an online application in order to receive their 2008 federal Economic Stimulus tax refunds.
The so-called application seeks bank account information from consumers that it says would facilitate the electronic deposit of refunds.
Corbett noted that the IRS does not initiate contact with consumers via e-mail and does not request detailed personal information or bank account information via e-mail. Further, taxpayers have received and will receive Economic Stimulus refunds based on how they filed their 2007 tax returns. The method of payment may not be changed.
Those wishing to report IRS-related e-mail scams to authorities may forward the messages directly to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov or call the attorney general’s office at 1-800-441-2555. ••