NEWS RELEASE

08/29/2014

REFERENCE: PROBABLE PHONE SCAM

Earlier on today's date, Dexter Police received a call from a complainant who received a call from a male subject who represented themselves as an employee (technician) from DirectTV. The caller advised that there was trouble with the complainants DirectTV connection.

The "technician" advised the complainant that he needed to access the internet at the residence in order to "test the signal" of her DirectTV and began giving instructions on how to use her computer to give the "technician" access. The complainant did not allow this access and terminated the phone call.

After this call, the complainant contacted DirectTV and was advised that no service calls had been made to the residence by a legitimate representative of DirectTV.

These types of scam phone calls sometimes even show a legitimate name of the business on your Caller ID. This scam usually continues by the "technician" running a "scan" or a "line test" and claim that "the line is bad" and that it will cost you a small fee to repair the line. After taking your credit or debit card information, the fee turns out to be a large amount of money, if not the entire balance of your account.

The Dexter Police Department would like to remind everyone to be cautious in giving out personal information and any financial information if you receive these types of calls.