WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Stolen bikes; jury-duty scam call

| Crime | West Seattle news

Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes so far today:

TWO BICYCLES STOLEN: Bill asks you to “be on the lookout for 2 kids’ bikes. They are 2-wheel Redline-brand bikes, one black, one blue. The blue one has additional Redline stickers placed on it as well as a couple of Halloween-type stickers. This occurred in our front-yard driveway at 46th SW and Lander.”

PHONE SCAM ALERT: The King County Sheriff’s Office recently re-circulated a warning about scam phone calls claiming people owe money for missing jury duty. JR e-mailed to say it happened to someone in her family:

A word of warning: A few days ago my adult son got several very realistic calls purportedly from the King County Sheriff’s Office at the Courthouse concerning his no-show after a jury summons. My son recalled receiving no such jury letter.

When the calls got to the point where the “officer” said my son needed to get money to pay a hefty fine – no checks, no credit card – and deposit it in a kiosk, he quickly realized that the whole thing was a scam and hung up. The guy called back and my son hung up again. Then the guy left a voice mail saying he would be arrested if he didn’t pay. By this time my son had called the Courthouse and learned that it was indeed a scam, but he said that until the demand for cash everything sounded very real and scary and he thought he was in $1900 (!) worth of big trouble.

Westgirl June 12, 2017 (12:44 pm)

Weird, I just received a call with a no caller ID and a pre recorded message saying that I’m being issued a warrant for attempting fraud with the IRS and to call this number back….

onion June 12, 2017 (1:22 pm)

I work from home, so I’ve received both the jury duty and IRS scam calls many times. If it’s a live person, I just tell them to stop on by and I’ll have cookies and milk waiting for them.

Also, don’t forget the fake calls from “tech support” letting you know about a problem with your computer. Someone just told me about a friend on Bainbridge who came very, very close to giving them money …. but did allow them to take control of and install malware on her computer.

People, please be wary.

AMD June 12, 2017 (6:42 pm)

I told one of the “tech support” guys I didn’t own a computer just to see what he’d say. He tried to convince me I did at first, then I asked him what room it was in and he stammered a bit and hung up.
- JHC June 13, 2017 (9:02 am)
  
  I had a call from the “tech guy” too. He said he was calling from Microsoft. I told him I don’t own any Microsoft products (I don’t) and he kept insisting that I did. I told him never to call me again and hung up.

Mark June 12, 2017 (4:32 pm)

Another scam is Comcast email billing reminder, it looks very real. BE CAREFUL

momosmom June 13, 2017 (8:54 am)

AND even another scam…I know you’re all shocked… if you get a call and the person sounds as though they are having problems with their headset and they say “can you hear me now” and you reply “YES” they use your recorded “YES” as agreeing to whatever they’re selling or asking for so be careful with this one too.

If it sounds like they are fumbling with a headset just hang up.

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