The Wayland City Police Department is warning area parents and caregivers to be watchful of on-line predators’ attempts to lure bored and vacationing young people into trouble.
Police Chief Mark Garnsey said, “The Wayland officers and I would like to send out a message, to talk about on-line internet use, especially during this time when our kids are out of school. While the kids are out of school, predators never take time off. Now some of our worst citizens know that kids are out of school, and the audience is even larger.”
The chief said there is a district-wide program that was being rolled out until the Coronavirus crisis hit.
“Kids are too precious to have their lives affected so negatively,” Garnsey said. “So, please don’t post anything even to your own Facebook account that you wouldn’t want anyone to see or read. If your account gets hacked, the hacker now has all of your pictures and everything you never intended to share. Scammers will then threaten to publish pictures if you don’t send them money, gift cards, or wire cash via Western Union. These extortionists go to great lengths to befriend kids and adults.
“They will take pictures from other people’s profiles to tell a nice story: ‘Here’s a picture of me on a hiking trip,’ etc. Then they send a picture of a person on a hiking trip. They choose profiles of people who have a lot of photos online. Then they send some more explicit pictures and develop a romantic interest. The day comes when you make a mistake and send a compromising picture back to them. Then the threats come. Send more pictures or else. If you don’t send money they threaten to send the pictures to your friends on Facebook or Instagram, family, co-workers, etc. that they have access to. You can imagine the humiliation.”
There also are fraudulent scammers who put a fake deposit to your bank account.
For example: “We put $8,000 in your account. Send us $4,000 and you can keep the other $4,000.”
“I worked a case with a detective from the Honolulu PD over this very thing. The detective has the suspect, and we have the victim here in our community. This was a business fraud where our people did nothing wrong, but the suspect made a false check in our business’ name.
“So, talk to your kids while you may have more time now. Tell them you care. It’s part of being a parent. If you need more information, take some time out and talk. Take turns looking up different scams on the internet, and read about the scams to each other.”
The chief said police are here to protect citizens and their kids, but the one person we can’t protect them from the most, is themselves.
“Take care everyone, support each other, and don’t fall victim to online or telephone scammers.,” he concluded.