Increased fraud in Alpena
But crime in smaller towns still exist, and in fact, is on the rise. Michigan state police Lieutenant Derrick Carroll tells us what to watch out for.
“In the Alpena area specifically, we did see a 37 percent increase in online swindle games for fraud and also 60 percent for fraud impersonation. So we have seen an increase in the Alpena area for those type crimes.”
Lieutenant Carroll says you can protect yourself from scammers by following a few key steps.
“The biggest thing people have to look for is number one, look at your credit card statements.
Be mindful of unsolicited emails or phone calls from an account that you may or may not have regarding fraud.
A lot of times people get a call saying hey, this is your amazon account, you’ve been compromised, press one to continue.
That’s not the case, their just fishing for you to push these numbers so they can put you in contact with someone to try and get your personal information.
They’ll say we need to verify your social security number, please give it to me, my standard answer is if you’re my creditor you have it, ill verify it, please tell me what it is.
Never ever give out personal information over the phone or through an unsolicited email.”
Lieutenant Carroll says the MSP is currently compiling their fourth quarter analytics to determine if there are any changes in the number of fraud cases around Alpena.
