The Brockville Police have received a number of complaints in the past couple of days of Fraudulent credit cards being used within the city. In one occurrence, a fraudulent credit card was used to make a large internet purchase. The alert merchant checked with the credit card company to verify the card status before shipping out the merchandise and learned the card was fraudulent. In another complaint, a fraudulent credit card transaction was attempt at a retail outlet but was declined at the terminal.
The Brockville area appears to be the target of fraudulent telemarketers as well. A complaint was received on Wednesday from a local resident That he received a call from a would be scammer saying they were from the FBI and he had won a prize. The resident was not fooled by the scam, and took down the number the call was coming from and contacted the police with the information. Remember you “never have to pay to play or claim a prize”
In another incident, a reporter to the Brockville Police reported being contacted from someone with the Revenue Canada saying they had an outstanding bill. Again the resident did not fall for the scam and contacted police with the information. Just a reminder Revenue Canada is now called Canada Revenue Agency (1st sign of a scam) and they do not cold call residents.
Brockville Police are also receiving complaints from local residents of pushy energy sales people going door to door in the city. We are again advising residents to not let sales persons who you do not know, or not comfortable with inside of your residence or provide them with any personal information. As well, if you have signed a contract with these energy sales people, and are having second thoughts there is a cooling off period under the Consumer Protection Act for you to get out of the contract.