After receiving information about a potential case of fraud, Escalon Police went to their social media to alert the public.

“We had a call from a woman who said she had been notified that she had two Amazon accounts and that one appeared to be fraudulent,” Escalon Police Chief Gus Flores said.

The scammer then became aggressive and demanded money from the woman, Flores said, ostensibly to ‘solve’ the fraudulent account.

“She didn’t fall for it, she hung up on them,” the chief said, adding that the potential victim then wanted to warn others. “She requested we put it out on our Facebook.”

Police did, issuing a ‘fraud alert’ message on Friday afternoon, Aug. 18.

“Scammers may call or even send text messages with various schemes to obtain money or social security numbers from people. Common schemes include calling and sending text messages regarding fraudulent activity on accounts such as Amazon, Netflix, and PayPal, or that packages could not be delivered, so you need to contact them and pay a re-delivery fee,” the Facebook post noted.

It went on to add: “Other scams can be more elaborate where scammers pose as family members in some sort of emergency and need money to be wired to them immediately. Lots of personal information, such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and even family members, can be obtained on-line. Although emergency situations do arise, do not be afraid to attempt to contact the family member directly or through other relatives to verify their claim is legitimate.”

Flores said anyone who thinks they may be a victim of a scam should contact local police to make a report. Officials also noted that many of the scammers “operate from overseas” which makes them difficult to track down and prosecute.