The Winchester Police Department received information on possible fraud and scams. We wanted the residents of Winchester to aware of the following:
From the FBI -
- Price gouging and hoarding of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- COVID-19 charity related scams
- Investment frauds
- Business email compromise schemes as businesses have altered their standard practices to continue operations
- Increased exploitation of ‘money mules’ (persons recruited to ‘work from home’, online dating/ romance scam and or lottery payment scam)
- Increase in use of virtual currency (Bit coin) to facilitate blackmail attempts
- Increase in loan, HELOC and mortgage scams
- Increase in Health Care Fraud / obtaining personal identifiable information via robo calls, social media sites, door to door solicitation and telemarketers
- Increase in fraudulent Medicare / Medicaid claims
From the US Postal Inspection Service -
Anticipates delivery of 80 million Economic Impact Payments (EIPs)
Requesting Law Enforcement agencies monitor for:
- General thefts of mail
- Forced entries into delivery cluster box units
- Assaults and robberies of USPS personnel
- Break-ins of USPS delivery vehicles
- Robberies of USPS facilities
- Fraudulent Change of Address and Hold mail activity
Homeland Security;
- RMVEs advocate for the superiority of the white race
- Exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to bolster narratives and encourage attacks against minorities, including Jewish and Asian Americans
- Online conspiracy theories describing the pandemic as a government perpetrated hoax
- Militia extremists expressing concern about government outreach leading to mass firearm confiscations and imposition of martial law
Stay Safe!