One of the major concerns of Hastings citizens at Tuesdays “Coffee with the Chief” with Police Chief Jeff Pratt was telephone scams and robo-calls and the inability to stop them. There are more calls than ever, some callers have heavy accents, likely from out of the country, others are recordings and robocalls, and residents said being on the “Do not call” list does not stop them, residents said.

Pratt, who gets the same calls, encouraged residents to get the number of the telephone with any request for money or personal information, call the police department and give an officer the number.  An officer will call the number to talk to the caller to try discourage further calls.

In addition to the scams that have been around a while, crooks are busy with new ones, Pratt said. Most people know they have not won a $100 million lottery, or that they owe the “IRS” back taxes and will be arrested if they don’t send the scammers money.

However, Pratt said new scams appear all the time. He recently got one supposedly from Dell computers saying he had a “Trojan Horse” virus in his computer and if he gave them his credit card information they would fix it. It’s not Dell and they won’t fix anything, Pratt said.

Be aware of another new scam where the crook tells you almost all of the information on your credit card; name, expiration date and the numbers on the front of the card.  What they don’t have, and are trying to find out, are the three numbers on the back of the card so they can drain your account, he said. "Never give personal or financial to anyone calling you on the telephone," Pratt stressed. After getting the number, the best thing to do is to just hang up.

Government offices like the IRS don’t use the telephone for legal matters; they write letters.  And, make sure it really is your grandson and he really is in trouble in Mexico and needs bail money before you open your wallet.