The Rock Springs Police Department has received numerous complaints of an apparent phone scam reaching many Sweetwater County residents.
The phone scam appears to be targeted at the “922” exchange, a prefix commonly used by cell phone users in the Rock Springs area. In the phone scam, a male claiming to be “John Anderson” or a similar name calls and tells the person he has a cashier’s check and that they have won $995,000 as well as a GMC Denali.
Reports say the caller speaks with an accent, and some calls have been determined to appear to originate in Jamaica. Many calls will show only “No caller ID” on the cell phone screen.
As with many phone scams promising people they have won a sweepstakes or a lottery, the caller will then tell the person they need to send money via Western Union or a Green Dot Card to a particular address in order to collect their winnings.
The money being requested is often referred to as paying processing fees or taxes on the winnings. These means are often difficult to track, so the sender’s money is rarely recovered if sent.
In this case the caller will relate the winners name was simply collected from businesses many people frequent such as Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, and Target.
The RSPD reminds citizens if they did not enter a sweepstakes or a lottery the chances are good the call is a scam. The best suggestion is to simply hang-up, and if a phone number does show up, block the number.