MARSHALL (KMHL) – Area residents should be on the lookout for COVID-19 related scams. Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen tells Marshall Radio authorities around the state are seeing different types of scams that are relating to the Coronavirus.
Wallen says one in particular is aiming to get access to people’s personal banking information when the caller claims to be from the IRS – and asks for the victims’ bank account number so they can deposit the stimulus check into the individuals account.
Wallen says the IRS will not call about that.
“They will usually always reach out via the U.S. Mail initiating some type of contact with you,” said Wallen. “If you get a call from anyone claiming to be from the IRS it is very likely a scam or fake.”
Wallen notes that they haven’t had any reports of the scams locally yet – but says authorities statewide are on the lookout for them.
In addition he warns that people should really be careful about what they’re posting on social media these days.
“A lot of people like to put out surveys and have you answer questions about yourself with what’s your favorite high school teacher, what’s the name of your first pet, what’s the first type of vehicle that you have, and it’s a fun thing for people to do to get your friends a little better,” said Wallen. “But a lot of those questions are similar to what you might have on your bank account or credit card account online and they want to do a verification process, so if you’re putting that information out of Facebook you are giving scammers answers to those questions.”
He says some of those surveys are even put out by scammers.
Here is the full interview that aired with Wallen earlier Wednesday on KMHL.
