Fraud Alert

Fraud Alert

February 25, 2015

The Truman State Department of Public Safety is currently investigating two separate incidents involving fraudulent attempts to obtain money.

In the first incident, an advertisement posted on the Career Center website for an accountant at local restaurant in Kirksville was fraudulent. The restaurant was unaware of the advertisement and was not associated with the fraud. If you responded to the advertisement applying for this position, please contact DPS at (660)665-5621 or Dave Lusk, Career Center Director, at (660)785-4353, or dlusk@truman.edu.

In the second incident, it was reported that a call was received from someone with a heavy accent who claimed to be from the local police department. The caller went on to say that the person or a member of the persons family was going to be arrested in the next hour due to unpaid taxes on their scholarship unless they sent a money order immediately.

Both incidents are scams. The scammers will often request money to be sent in form of a money order or will attempt to get the person to cash a fraudulent check for them and send the money to the caller. Frequently, the scammer will attempt to gain personal information such as bank account numbers, debit or credit card numbers, or other personal information in order to settle the matter in a timely fashion.

If you have any information on these incidents or believe you may have been the victim of a scam, please contact the Truman State Department of Public Safety at (660)665-5621 or your local police department.

Here are a few things you can look for to protect yourself and avoid being a victim of this type of crime:

  • Do not give personal information over the phone or by any electronic means.
  • If you get a call such as this, simply hang up.
  • If you are unfamiliar with a company, check them out.
  • Law enforcement agencies do not call demanding money in lieu of making arrests.
  • Scammers, many times, will send you a check and ask you to cash it and return to them a portion of the face value and allow you to keep the rest. They typically ask that you send proceeds via money order. If you are asked to do this, it is most likely a scam. The check sent to you is bogus.