In February, there was a scam that brought a Flagstaff woman to Coles on a snowy Tuesday to purchase gift cards worth a total of $10,000. At the time, she was on the phone with a scammer for several hours.

In an interview with the Arizona Daily Sun, a scam victim (who wished to remain anonymous) explained that the ordeal began when he clicked on a pop-up ad believed to be generated by Microsoft. Later, her caller claimed her phone and computer had been compromised and forwarded her to someone posing as an employee of her Chase Bank.

“By that time, I was really scared. “He said, ‘I need to buy a security card and create a double charge.'”

Having created that double bill, she lined up at the checkout at Forest Meadows department store with her phone trembling in her hand. Like when her cashier asked why she bought her 20 $500 gift cards, she had a cell phone and her scammers said it was for her birthday party. instructed her. At this point, she was led to believe that she would get into legal trouble if she didn’t create a “double charge” despite the fact that the two charges were unequal.

“My frontal lobes had stopped working. I was in Fight, Flight, Freeze mode. You’re scared to death. Just get over it — that’s how I felt,” she said. Told.

According to Detective Michael Hansen of the Flagstaff Police Department (FPD), this kind of scam is more common than people think. At his FPD he has been working for nine years and has seen this kind of scam evolve and become more sophisticated.

Scammers are often able to spoof phone numbers, Hansen said, leading to an increase in fraudulent calls from financial institutions, utility companies, and even those claiming to be FPD and the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.

“We have seen [cases] They say a person has a warrant. Scammers may essentially be able to pick their own number, so the call actually comes from a police number. … so it’s best to hang up, look up the phone number, and call the company back directly if necessary. Even if it’s your financial institution,” Hansen said.

The trick is to put the phone down. The victim, who spoke to the Daily Sun, became so horrified that it began to feel impossible to hang up.

“I kept thinking, ‘Maybe someone will stop me or help me,'” she said.

Eventually, when she got home, she noticed a trusted neighbor who left her phone in her car and called for help. I got out of a hostage-like situation.

She later contacted FPD and connected with a Victim Witness advocate.

According to Hansen, connecting people who fall prey to scammers to victim services is often one of the main ways police can help. Investigating fraud is not an easy process.

“Most of the time the scams are not local. There is usually no real connection in Flagstaff or Coconino County other than the victims who live here. also do some different research, which is rare as it goes through companies that buy phone numbers and don’t need real information from the end-user. “Normally, if we can pin it to at least another jurisdiction, we’ll forward those cases to that jurisdiction. Occasionally, they may even be routed to IP addresses in that state, making tracking even more difficult.”

Most scammers live outside the county and often outside the country, making it difficult to prosecute offenders.

“We do communicate and work with the FBI sometimes, but the threshold of value lost is pretty high before the FBI steps in and handles the case,” the detective said.

In general, Hansen said he hopes people can work with financial institutions to mitigate financial losses. Banks are insured, so they may be able to help victims reuse some of their money or even freeze their accounts to prevent financial loss in the first place.

However, this is not always the case.

Victims who spoke to the Daily Sun are unlikely to be able to restore their bank accounts.

“I gladly bought the gift card, so I’ll cover the cost,” she recalled.

Whenever a caller asks for payment in the form of a gift card, police say it’s a red flag.

“If anyone asked you to pay with cryptocurrencies or gift cards, it would be a scam,” Hansen said. “I’ve seen the IRS ask people for he Apple gift cards, but they clearly don’t.”

The victim we spoke to said she knew him well too.

I was intimidated. I was scared to death,” she said.

Finally, she said she was happy to connect with Victim Witness Services. Their support is one of the reasons police encourage scam victims to report these types of crimes.

“Any time you think you’ve been scammed, whether it’s of monetary value or not, you should report it. But the crime itself is common, and the tactics used by scammers vary.

The person we spoke to dealt with one of the most common “fraud types” in FPD. Hansen said this type of scam typically targets seniors. Other scams actually work from an angle of shame and leverage social media to generate extortion.

“There has been a huge increase in extortion-type schemes. One of the most common problems we see is people documenting sexual acts or things of that nature on social media and then sharing it with friends and family. The threat of sharing with others, sharing on social media, etc. Then there is the demand for payment,” said Hansen.

According to Hansen, FPD has also seen a number of “senior love” scams, where scammers seek to establish relationships with seniors online and ultimately demand large sums of money. FPD has also investigated a number of scams where callers obtained public information about relatives of victims and asked for cash by pretending to be loved ones.

Web-based real estate fraud is also common in Flagstaff. Scammers demand first and last month’s rent for properties that may or may not exist.

As scammers continue to develop increasingly sophisticated and creative deceptions, police say the best way to protect yourself is to be vigilant. For the victims of this story, she said, she was surprised at how easily she set aside the best practices she knew.

“I think the problem is they can twist your mind. Cut it,” said the victim. “Unplug your computer and see what happens, and contact someone you trust while you wait. Seek help immediately.”