There is a fraud alert from Athens-Clarke County Police, who say the scam began back in October: since then, police in Athens say they have received several reports about fraudulently transferred funds using social payment apps, such as Venmo. The suspect will tell the victim he is having car trouble and needs to make a call. Once in possession of the victim’s cell phone, the suspect gains access the victim’s social payment account and transfers a quantity of currency from the victim’s account to another account.
From the ACCPD…
Since October of 2020, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department has received several reports regarding fraudulently transferred funds using social payment apps, such as Venmo. In these cases, the suspect approaches the victim and asks to use their cellphone. The suspect will often say that he is having car trouble and needs to make a call.
Once in possession of the cell phone, the suspect gains access the victim’s social payment account(s) and transfers a quantity of currency from the victim’s account to another account. The desire to help people in need is an instinctive human characteristic; however, you can take steps to prevent this type of theft from happening.
Instead of giving unmitigated access to your cell phone to unfamiliar persons, offer to make the call for them. Log out of social payment apps and banking apps when not using them, and, require some level of security to log into the apps (such as PINs, passwords, or biometric scans).
If possible, enable two-factor authentication to log into sensitive accounts such as banking or social payment apps.
The investigation into these recent cases is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Simms at jonathan.simms@accgov.com or (762) 400-7102.