Crime & Safety

A Flurry of Scams Reported by Businesses and Residents

Con artists have been busy in Fairlawn and Bath with some clever crimes

 

A series of unrelated scams has been reported in the area in the last few weeks -- some of them crafty enough to fool residents and local employees, at least for awhile.

Some examples:

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• A man claiming to work for a distributor went into at least two Giant Eagle stores saying he needed to check the inventory for expired beer. He walked out of each with several cases of Corona and Miller Lite.

• A woman went into a Bath business claiming she was owed a refund for drinks she'd purchased earlier. She claimed she'd spoken with another employee who told her to stop back in to get her money.

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• A Fairlawn man was conned out of more than $11,000 when someone called to say his nephew was in trouble in Bolivia. 

• A woman returned a DVD player to a drugstore for a refund, but employees later discovered she'd substituted a different unit in the box. 

• A customer returned bottles of product to Ulta. Afterward, employees noticed the bottles didn't smell right and discovered they had been filled with different liquids.

• A resident told police he had been getting calls from someone claiming to be with Microsoft, telling him there was a problem with his computer and asking him to turn it on so they could check it out.

The incident was likely part of a growing scam in which a caller gets a victim to turn on his computer, then walks him through some "fixes" that actually give him access to all the personal information on the hard drive, including passwords and banking information.


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