Inland Empire Consumer Alert: Beware of Telephone Scams
Inland Empire Consumer Alert: Beware of Telephone Scams
by Charles Cleveland, Attorney-Certified Specialist Workers Compensation Law and Real Estate Broker
Over the past year, several of my present and past clients in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have contacted me regarding a variety of telephone scams. Some are Robo-calls but most of them involved imposters pretending to be from the Social Security Administration, police departments, government tax collection, court fine collectors, government census takers, investments, charities and even pretending to be from your bank. If you are involved in a real estate transaction, never give your private information or financial documents to anyone on the phone pretending to be your bank or lender. Hang up and contact them directly.
Remember it’s extremely unlikely that any of these government agencies or private entities will call you and ask you for your personal identifying information over the phone. Many of these scammers make threats of arrest, collection proceedings, court dates, and other forms of intimidation. If this happens to you, hang up and report that phone call. The following links explain how these scams work and how to report them to the appropriate government agency. Here are some links to help you learn more about these types of scams targeting Inland Empire residents.