The Royal Cayman Islands Police Services Financial Crime Unit is urging the public to be on their guard against scams that have been reported to detectives.
The criminals behind these tricks are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in their approach and these days often use logos, emblems and well known company names to make their communications appear more genuine.
In one recent incident, a Cayman business received a fax from a company claiming to be the Internal Revenue Services or the IRS. The fax explained that the IRS was writing to acquire some personal and professional information to ensure the recipient remains exempt from paying United States of America Tax. Investigations with the IRS have proved that this is scam designed to obtain details such as bank account numbers, mother’s maiden names and passport numbers.
In another incident, an email was received from a company claiming that the recipient had been chosen as a winner in an eBay sweepstake. This is also a scam designed to obtain personal details from the recipient. These emails are highly official looking and could easily fool someone into passing over private information. eBay has confirmed that it would never ask for personal details such as credit card numbers or passwords via email. Anyone who is suspicious of a message appearing to have come from eBay should not click on any links supplied within the email and can mail their concerns to [email protected].
The last email scam reported to detectives claims that the recipient is the winner in the UK Lottery. These scams are basically unsolicited e-mails that say you’ve won money in a lottery or competition that you have never entered.
It can be hard to distinguish between genuine and non-genuine emails, especially if you receive a large amount of electronic communication. If you receive an email that you are concerned about you are urged to be very cautious. One way of checking is to do an internet search on the names of the organisations or corporations involved and you are likely to find the latest warnings and advisories on them.
Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling crime stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.
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