Hawaii Island police are warning the public about several scams that have been reported by island residents.
A Keaau couple reported being the target of three telephone scams within two weeks, according to the Hawaii County Police Department. The first reported scam occurred when a person called the couple’s cellphone claiming that the had won a Publishers Clearing House prize of several million dollars and that someone would arrive within a couple of hours to deliver it. The call originated from Jamaica.
The second apparent scam was a call to the couple’s home phone from a blocked number by a woman with a foreign accent who began to ask questions about the recipient’s computer, according to police.
The third scam was a late-night phone call from an Arkansas area code with a “mechanical female voice” claiming the couple’s MasterCard had been blocked. The recipient hung up the phone and then researched the scam and learned that the next step is for the caller to ask for the recipient’s credit card number.
Police urge the public to be suspicious of requests for personal information made over the telephone or by Internet. Police advise the public not to provide such information without independently verifying that the request is legitimate.