Using the phone to try a scam, a warning

Oconee Sheriff’s Office has issued a reminder that telephone scammers resort to what’s called “spoofing” to make it appear that they are calling from a local number when in many cases they are not. An Oconee County plumber on the job got a call yesterday which appeared to carry a local prefix but, in this case, he became suspicious and did not take the call. A listener called 101.7/WGOG recently to question whether an unsolicited offer on the phone to buy medical equipment was legitimate. About such a call Jimmy Watt, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, said, “We advise our citizens that if they receive a phone call from someone saying that Medicare has approved any type of medical devices for them that they did not request or their doctor did not request to simply hang up the phone and contact their doctor’s office to check to see if something has been ordered for them and do not supply the caller with any type of personal information….”