Scam artists calling South Tahoe residents
South Lake Tahoe police officers have received numerous calls from residents saying people are pretending to be from Liberty Utilities are asking for money for alleged overdue bills.
Contact Liberty Utilities at 800.782.2506 about bills or go online.
Local authorities also say a similar scam involving the IRS is also occurring.
Officers want to remind residents not to give out any personal information over the phone to anyone calling you unsolicited. That includes your name, birth date, Social Security number, debit/credit card numbers, or any banking information. The same is true for any solicitation or requests for money received by email.
Scam artists are everywhere. Tuesday evening there was a car in front of my house honking the horn. I went outside and they said my dog had chased and barked at their kid earlier in the day, as he was ridiing his bike down the street and they wanted $500 because he was still shaking from the barking and chasing of him down to the corner. I refused to pay and they said they will be back to collect the money.
Yes, the next day, the kid, probabaly in his late teens, demanded the money, but now what he wanted was $50, when he came back the following day.
So the kid was wearing a red ski hat, with peirced ears and dark clothing and riding a blue bycicle and is about 5 feet tall and is hispanic. He would’nt give give me his real name but he calls himself “Chulo”.
So beware of the scammers! OLS
Old Long Skiis, sorry you almost got scammed. However, there are leash laws. Your dog should have been not running loose, if that was the case.
This is a major problem outside city limits too where people ignore the leash laws; they walk by and knowingly let their dogs tear up property, State Park, etc. This is not okay.
My small dog was on a leash in her yard and got attacked by dogs walking without leashes a while back ago, my five yr old daughter has had dogs running up to her growling, in her own yard. I have had my garden destroyed and stuff on our property destroyed. It is to much hard work and cost to have ignorant pet owners turn the eye to the leash laws. It is laziness, uncalled for and very disrespectful. Animal control needs to step up for once and do their darn job.
Lee,I have to agree, I should not have let my dog out unleashed to greet my girlfriend when she came home from work. The kid took advantage of this to try and bilk me for $500.
My fault for letting the dog out unleashed. I apologized repeatedly for him being scared but he still insisted that I give him $500. As he told me he was not bitten nor did he crash his bike, but he said he was scared. about being chased by my dog for half a block and he wanted money.
Then he became defiant, threatening and demanding about giving him the full amount of $500 in cash on the spot. When I said I was going to call the cops? The mom drove off in a real hurry . Beware , OLS
we need to stop this racket! OLS
4500
You did call the cops, didn’t you?
Old Long Skiis,
Sorry he tried to do this to you. It is not right, I would have called the cops like suggested above. Did you get the mom’s license plates?
There are so many scams out there, beware is right. I have personally dealt with identity theft twice this year. Also I get calls from someone saying they are the District Attorney, when obviously they are not.
I think this is a bit beyond a simple scam; I’d call it extortion. Granted, your dog shouldn’t have been out, but your dog being loose isn’t a license for everyone in the neighborhood to claim that they should be monetarily rewarded. I mean, the kid’s not a lawyer, although he may have a future as one.
But for now he’s just punk neighborhood gang-banger whom, if the cops aren’t already aware of, they should be.
It seems to me that the folks at the Lake should keep in mind: WWJRD – What Would John Runnels Do?. Granted, John almost certainly wouldn’t call the cops, but notice that none of his supposed trespassers have ever gone back for a second time. Being polite isn’t always the best strategy.
Copper, they would’nt give me their names other than the kid who called himself Chulo and that he kept saying he was an “amazing person”.He also said several times not to “disrespect” him as well.
So I said I’ll take down their license plate number,call the police and we’ll go from there.
The woman driving, roared off in the mini van before I could get the plate number. I did not call the police altho I probably should have.
So keep your eyes open folks, they’re lots of people out there lookin’ to make some easy money!
Beware of the scammers, OLS
“I did not call the police altho I probably should have.”
Yeah, I agree. Although I confess that I’m a little nervous about what the police response might have been. SLTPD has mostly bright and excellent cops, and dispatchers as well, but every agency I’ve ever known also has “kiss-off” specialists who might all but hang up on you. That’s just reality. It’s also reality that they have sergeants and administrative ranks who also know how to answer phones and would be a next step for anyone shined on by the rare kiss-off artist.
But, OLS, you remain one of the most competent and, for most of us, favorite posters on Kae’s unregulated forum. Hang in there; you almost always do the right thing and are the envy of those of us who don’t. Or can’t.
Scammers, thieves, criminals, out working a con, nothing more. I would of reported it as the entire story sounds false and this way others might be saved the trouble and a record will be on file about these people. Could easily be a case of them not even being in the country legally to begin with and already working scams.
Scam artists…
Hey haven’t any of you noticed the biggest scam artists around is your government…
talk about scam, look at the border, look at the stock market, look at the poor kids being coaxed by here by the administration and dying in the desert, how many bodies have been found so far? – now word is our border is on alert for an attack from ISIS…
The scammer in chief Obama, talk about a scam artist… 4 years ISIS is brewin’ and he comes out and says… I don’t have a strategy to deal with them…
America today is the home of the scammed. get use to it.
Copper, Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the whole situation with this kid and the lady driving him around and honking the horn and yelling at me about my barking dog was weird.
I’ll definetly call the cops next time should he come back ,as he vowed to do, demanding more money. He also said he watched me thru the front window of my house while I was on the computer…creepy!!!
Strange new world! OLS
My sincere apologies for going off topic. I was not trying to state your dog was a problem or is or that you ignore the leash laws. If it appeared that way I am sorry. I was just venting my personal experiences with leash law issues and troubles I have encountered; which is unrelated to what you encountered.
As a frequent visitor to this website for news I also enjoy reading the comments, including yours and other visitors to this forum.
Hope they leave you and your dog be and I wish you the best in that.
OLS:
This attempt at extorting money from you and watching you through your window is very creepy. I’m glad you’ve got your dog to watch your back and alert you if these people come around again. I had a weird incident when two young men came to my door during winter/Christmas vacation and said they were “collecting funds for their school”. They looked way too old to be high school students and I was feeling really uncomfortable. Then my very big dog walked up and stuck his nose out the door while I grabbed ahold of his collar. One of the guys uttered “that’s a big dog”, then they both backed down off the porch and left. Needless to say my amazing canine best friend got a ton of kisses, hugs, and treats for having my back.
Hope everything levels off for you and you’re not bothered by these creeps again, and thanks for the heads-up about this scam.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Cj look in tne mirror to see the biggest loud mouth on the blog…
I actually appreciate my government for the most part. Why dont you try being a leader. Its probably a c r appy job and im sure you would make a perfect beaurocrat not…
Just a thought, supported by only a bit of real evidence but a lot of experience: do you suppose that your police department, having already had its staffing reduced significantly over recent years, and its hated wages and benefits falling well behind other agencies, is no longer able to attract the kinds of cops who might serve your needs more effectively? I’m already aware that a recent hiring test produced precisely zero qualified candidates. I call that good news, since the PD was obviously still looking for quality. But it could be that quality is becoming hard to attract – living at or near the Lake is an attraction, but no one can raise a family on a beautiful view.
And I’m told that further reductions in benefits are in the works. Some here will celebrate.