Ojai City Watch 10/1/09
FROM: Sgt. Joe Evans
Greetings Watchers.
During the past 2 weeks we have seen a slight increase in residential burglary reports. None of these crimes seem to be related and I am not sure why we are having the increase. Most of our burglaries occur during the day when the victims are at work. In at least on of the cases the suspect was associated with a family member.
These type of crimes can often be prevented or detected by neighbors who all know each other and have discussed their local neighborhood problems. They quickly learn to share information and have a common concern about neighborhood safety. They realize their strength is in their numbers and their knowledge. These neighbors who tend to watch out for each other and are quick to call police about suspicions activity in their neighborhood.
Those of us at home during the day should keep an eye out for suspicious people in our neighborhoods. When we see someone not known to the area, walking about, we need to watch them. Watch for suspicious activity like going door to door or loitering around our neighbors homes with no apparent reason for being there. Maybe they are just walking up and down the street looking into front and back yards. They may also park a car on one street and walk around the corner to commit crimes on another street.
If you see this type of activity call the police. Your deputies will contact them and find out what they are up to. This will give the deputies a chance to stop a potential crimes before they occur, or they will get the chance to have a positive contact with a local citizen. Either way your call will get the ball rolling.
SCAMS
One of our citizens have become the victim of a scam. Our citizen is sitting at home when the telephone rings. She answers the phone and a female voice says ” Hi Grand ma” Our victim believes this is her grand child and responds by calling her by name. The person on the telephone goes along with our victims and tells her how she has been arrested for Drunk Driving in Canada and the charges can only be dropped if money is wired to the attorney at once. The person on the telephone is very convincing and our victim agrees to send the money. The person on the phone also requests our victim not to tell anyone else in the family.
After sending the money, or victim calls the local police agency involved in the arrest and finds out this was a scam. Our victim then calls your local deputies and the investigation is started.
We have another case where a local victim received an e-mail from who he thought was his relative. The e-mail said the relative was stranded in England and needed money. The e-mail asked for him to wire money via Western Union which he did. He later learned that this relative was not in England and the e-mail was scam. This victim also calls us and this investigation is also underway.
The reason I put this out to all of you is that any of us could be a victim of this type of crime. These crooks know we are good people and most of us will do anything for our families. The criminals use the basic good in all of us and turn it into a money making machine for them. You can see that there is no limit to low a crook will go to separate us from our money.
If you receive a call like this or any suspicious e-mails, please call our office. You can also send the information to me at City Watch and I will try to help you decide weather or not it is a scam. When in doubt do not send anything. Anytime you area asked to keep a secret like this, you should already be thinking something is not right. The other thing we see is that many of these crimes require the money to be sent to other countries or the opposite side of the United States. Remember these crooks know about legal jurisdictions and the limitations of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute these crimes.
Have a great day and thanks for all you do.
Your friend and neighbor, Joe
I can be contacted at ojaivalley.citywatch@ventura.org
Thanks to the VCSD for the good work out there trying to protect our homes. Our neighborhood went through a huge rash of burglaries. The VCSD were great in catching perps red handed and suppressed the crime wave.
But gee whiz, Joe, if you want to catch scammers, post something of value for sale of Craig’s List. Half of the responses are from scammers.
Rick Raine
2 Oct 09 at 2:13 pm
Rick;
I’ve never used Craig’s List so am wondering just how scammers ply their trade there. If you’re in the mood to explain, that is. Maybe it’ll help others here.
And yes, kudos to VCSD.
White Tribe Activist
2 Oct 09 at 5:52 pm
WTA The scammers send out form letters, similar in nature to the Nigerian royal family. They’ll send a check for full price, plus extra for shipping, and request the items to be sent via USPS Global Priority mail to a PO Box overseas, or they’ll send a “mover” to pick up the items. These form letters will vary to some degree. Sometimes they appear as legitimate inquiries asking if the items are still available, but the follow up emails are pretty obvious it’s from a scammer.
On about every Craig’s List email you receive regarding your post, they warn about the scammers and frauds. You have to protect yourself. Anything I sell is face to face and cash only.
I know Joe and was having a little fun with him on my “Gee whiz” comment. Kind of a “the perps will come to you” ribbing. There’s nothing the VCSD can really do, it’s internet crime. They can take a report, but that’s about it.
Rick Raine
3 Oct 09 at 8:21 am
Here is another scam on Craigs list, this happened to someone close to me. THey were looking for an Apartment for rent in another city and they found one for a great deal. THey started to email with the landlord and found the landlord to be foreign by the spelling errors. Soon they smelled a scam and called me over. I took one look and said “Scam” . It was so obvious, the so called landlord’s name was “Goode” and they said “like the good Christians we are!” They also said they couldn’t be there to let my friends in to see the Apt… but that they would mail the keys after the money was wired. That kind of thing. I told my friends to ignore them but they wanted to have a little fun with the person so they told the prospective landlord that they were always stinky and dirty from their sewer working jobs and that they would probably get the white carpets dirty and would that still be ok, plus they said they had all kinds of weird animals and finally that they were Muslims not Christians but they still wanted the Apt. The landlord wrote back , (so funny), “Oh , thats fine we know you will take good care of our apt. no matter what your religion and job and as long as the animals are housebroke (a lizard and a skunk?) it would be fine and all we need is the first and last months rent and a cleaning deposit and we will mail you the keys… pretty funny.
Just a girl
3 Oct 09 at 11:38 am
Too bad these scammers can’t use their creativity in an honest manner! Great story “Just a girl”.
White Tribe Activist
3 Oct 09 at 12:24 pm
My own elderly mother received two checks in the mail that were supposed to be “sweepstake winner” checks , one from some kind of elevator company and the other from “Time Warner Cable” ..what is scary is they followed up these checks they sent with phone calls trying to get her to send them money so she could get her winnings then when she told them no they said she was going to die. I called the cops because it freaked me out that they knew her address and her name. The good thing was the persistant scammers called her back again when the police were actually at her house and they told the scammers to lay off her and that they were aware of their scam.
Just a girl
3 Oct 09 at 4:54 pm