CRESSKILL, N.J.—Borough police told Northern Valley Press about two recent incidents in which residents were targeted by fraudulent actors.
Scammer claimed to be from Verizon
A North Pond Road resident told police Aug. 23 that she was contacted one day earlier by an operator claiming to be from Verizon, wanting to update her account.
She was asked to text a pin number that was sent to her in order to complete the update.
After complying with the instruction, the reporting party’s husband received an email that $3,500 to $4,000 worth of Apple products would be delivered via UPS to their address the following day.
These products were not ordered, and the reporting party told Verizon, who advised the incident was fraudulent. The woman was told to contact police. The items were cancelled, and the woman was told to monitor the home for any deliveries of fraudulent items.
Watch no longer available; neither is refund
On Aug. 23, an Oak Street resident reported a possible fraud.
The reporting party transferred $11,162 from a bank account to the website “VP Rich Club” to purchase a new Rolex watch.
The reporting party then received an email from the company claiming the watch had been sold and no longer available. The company offered the availability of a watch twice the value of the original purchase at a discount. Feeling suspicious, the reporting party demanded a refund of his original wire transfer, to which the company claimed that would take 30 days. The reporting party was also directed their online sales merchandise sold through Ebay.
The reporting party also filed a fraud incident report with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, due to the amount of money involved.