By Cain Madden

The Natchez Democrat

VIDALIA — Over the past month, the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office reports receiving more than 30 calls related to phone or computer scams in the area.

CPSO spokesman Vernon Stevens said he believes the actual number of resident scammed to be higher.

Three phone and two computer scams are going around, Stevens said. The biggest two are claiming to be from the IRS and Publisher’s Clearing House.

Less common, residents are being called and told they have won the Cayman Island Lottery but have to pay a fee to clear the money.

“Nobody is going to call you and say here is some money, come and get it, it’s just not going to be that way,” Stevens said. “If someone is offering you a prize, but you have to send money to collect it, it is more than likely a scam.

“The safest thing you can do is report it to the state crime office or the sheriff’s office.”

For the first computer scam, potential victims receive an email, purportedly from the drug enforcement agency, that can lock your screen for allegedly using drugs, buying drugs or watching porn, and the scammers give you instructions on sending money.

The second is a virus that gets on your computer, locks your screen, and says that you will lose data if you don’t send money by way of the information on the screen.

“The best way to handle these is to take your computer to a service agent, have them scrub it and get the virus off,” the officer said.

Stevens said he was even called about sending money to pay the fees to send the Publisher’s Clearing House film crew to his home.

“They want you to go to Walgreens and take money out of an ATM or send a money order,” he said. “A lot of people enter that sweepstakes, and remember they entered in when they get a call.

“They start thinking they are fixing to be on easy street for the rest of their life, and wind up being out $500 to $1,000.”

But Stevens said Publisher’s Clearing House doesn’t notify you by phone.

The IRS one surfaces every year around this time, he said.

“They will say something like we have discovered an error in your return and you owe an additional $460 or something like that, and they will ask you to send that amount,” Stevens said. “The (real) IRS doesn’t call you.”

Dorothy Gatlin of Ridgecrest said she’d heard of another one that scammed an elderly couple in her town out of more than $12,000.

In that case, the scammer will call claiming to be from the Department of Justice about a warrant for arrest being out for failure to show up for court. They will then give instructions for paying the fee.

A similar scam was reported in Adams County this time last year.

Stevens hadn’t heard of this one, but he said the best thing to do if you get a call like this is report it to the sheriff’s office at 318-336-5231.