By KATIE JOHNSON
Dowagiac Daily News

When Frances Rosetto received a call from a stranger telling her she was pre-approved for exemption from medical and property taxes for two years, she was skeptical. The caller said she had to provide her Social Security and credit card numbers to qualify.
“They sound so official,” said Rosetto, 81, of Howard Township. “I said, ‘I don’t know who you are.’ ”

After the call, Rosetto reported the scam call to police, her senior citizens’ center and Howard Township.

“People should know about it,” she said.

Rosetto is not alone.

Cass County Sheriff Joseph M. Underwood Jr. reported his office received an earlier complaint of a phone scam being used in Cass County.

The sheriff’s office has been made aware of one scam in which an unknown subject or subjects call a residence, claiming to be a family member, but not stating specifically who they are.

Instead, the caller used the general greeting of “Hi Grandma.”

The caller claims he or she is in trouble with the police, possibly even in jail and in need of money.

On another occasion the caller specifically named a family member and said he or she was the authorities in Canada and that money needed to be sent to bond the family member out of jail.

In both of these incidents, when additional questions were asked the caller hung up.
Underwood strongly suggests caution when dealing with such calls and to verify with other family members before taking any action.

If you think it may be an actual family member, have them call the American Embassy for assistance or have authorities there contact your local authorities through official channels.

(In Dowagiac, the post office has been having problems with postal money orders. Someone, often an elderly citizen, receives a money order to cash, with instructions to keep some for themselves  and forward the rest.

The money order might be from an address in California, postmarked in Canada and the money’s supposed destination is yet a third location.

The excitement of getting rich quick can cloud judgment of why someone you don’t know reached out to you in the first place. Yet Dowagiac postal employees encountered two such instances last week).

The following government site can be used to report scams: www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/government.shtml.