New money wire scams reported in Jamestown

Two new scams involving computers were reported by law enforcement here on Monday.

The first scam involved a Stutsman County male who was viewing pornography online, said Jason Falk, detective with the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office.

A pop-up window then appeared on the man’s monitor saying he was violating a federal law and to clear his name he must wire money, Falk said.

The man, on his way to wire the money, confessed to his wife, who then told him to report it.

The second scam involved a man receiving a phone call from a person claiming to work for Microsoft.

The person told the Stutsman County resident his computer was sending error messages to the company and he had to go online and visit a website and enter personal information to fix the error.

The potential victim knew it was a scam because he didn’t own a computer.

“There are scam artists everywhere,” said Detective Sgt. Leroy Gross, Jamestown Police Department. “They pop up on your cellphones and your computers.”

Gross said it’s best to be suspicious anytime anyone is asking for someone to wire money.

“If you don’t ever want to be a victim of a scam, then don’t wire money,” he said.

Tags: news, crime