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Dear Neighborhood Watch volunteers,
The next Neighborhood Watch meeting will be held on Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. at the Tinley Park Public Library, 7851 Timber Drive in the meeting room.
The guest presenters for the meeting will be Gerry Griffin, President of Goldy Locks and Doug Caldwell, General Manager, who will be speaking on locks and security systems. Please encourage your neighbors and friends to attend this meeting.
Tinley Park Police would like to remind residents that there are many scams that are delivered by phone, internet and the mail. Please remember, "If it seems to good to be true . . . it is!"
PRIZE CRUISE SCAM
A call is received on your phone and you are told that you have won a free cruise or have qualified for a fabulous cut-rate price, but you will need to provide a credit car number to pay a deposit, port taxes or processing fee. You may even be asked for your passport or Social Security number to prove that you are the entitled winner.
You will be asked for your credit car number and charged “port fees” and other incidentals that exceed what you would pay for an entire booking through a legitimate cruise line or travel agent. If you provide your Social Security number or passport number you will risk future identity theft. And your supposedly free vacation may require you to book a second guest at an inflated price. If you want to take a cruise, research where you would like to visit and then go to a travel agent or book directly on a cruise line website.
THE HIDDEN SALES PITCH
Some offers are designed to get you to attend a sales pitch for a timeshare or an expensive vacation club. You may earn a low cost cruise, or other gift for attending the presentation. People have complained that the 90 minute presentation lasted four hours or more and it was extremely high pressure.
GREEN DOT CARD MONEYPAK PHONE CALL
You receive a call on your phone (cell or land based line) and are told that you are the winner of a million and half dollars plus a new car. In order to claim the prize you need to purchase a Green Dot MoneyPak card (green card) for $350.00. The caller receives a call asking for the fourteen digit number off of the back of the card. The person provides the number and is told that a courier would bring the money that was won in the form of a cashier’s check along with the paperwork in 30 minutes. No one ever shows up and the entire $350.00 is depleted from the Green Dot Moneypak card.
WHAT IS A GREEN DOT MONEYPAK CARD?
A Green Dot MoneyPak card is a prepaid card offered by the Green Dot Corporation which is a member of Columbus Bank & Trust which compared to other prepaid cards has very low fees. To activate this card, there is a $9.95 fee to put money on the card. Cards are available to purchase at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Meijers and other retail locations. There is a maintenance fee of $4.95 for unlimited purchases. The reason why people get a prepaid card is because they might not have a checking account or a debit card. A prepaid card works the same way as a debit card but has fees. The scammers call and ask you to place a certain amount of money on the card, i.e., $150.00, or $300.00 after they tell you that you have won millions. At the retail store there is a $9.95 charge to activate and then the money can be loaded onto the card. A scammer will call and ask for the 14-digit number on the prepaid Green Dot MoneyPak (similar to the numbers on a credit card) and then take the money off of your card. Please do not fall for this scam.
DO NOT CALL LIST 1-888-382-1222
Please consider calling and being a part of the Do Not Call List. You must call from the phone that you are enrolling into the program both land based and cell phone numbers are included.
SEE IT! HEAR IT! REPORT IT!
Thank you,
Dina L. Navas
Tinley Park Police
Community Resource Unit
7850 West 183rd Street
Tinley Park, IL 60477
708-444-5326
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