Yonkers police warn against scammers posing as law enforcement officials
The Yonkers Police Department says it is seeing more reports about residents getting calls from people claiming to be from the Yonkers Police Internet Crime Unit. Yonkers police say this unit doesn't exist.
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Scams are becoming more and more common. This time, it's now involving people claiming to be from the Yonkers Police Department.
The Yonkers Police Department is seeing more reports about residents getting calls from people claiming to be from the Yonkers Police Internet Crime Unit. Yonkers police say this unit doesn't exist.
The caller tries to get financial information or convince them to open bank accounts in a new country, claiming they are a victim of a crime and their old accounts are compromised.
"Very frightening because you trust the police," says Yolanda Murphy, a Yonkers resident.
"Nowadays, you just can't trust anybody," says Frances Burgos, a resident.
Yonkers police arrested two people in a similar scam.
Hongdong Liu, 30, of Queens and Pinting Lu, 28, of Queens were arrested in connection with a scam.
Police say the two were involved in an operation scamming a resident out of almost $70,000. Police say their scam involved phone calls to a resident pretending to be a Yonkers Police lieutenant and demanding money to fix their home computer, claiming it was being used for child pornography.
They're both now charged with grand larceny in the third degree.
As of Saturday, Yonkers police received about 40 reports of this and no scammer has been successful yet.
Police say they'd never ask people for their financial information over the phone.
Officials say don't answer the phone if it's an unknown number or email.
"The scammers use every way possible to trick you, to get personal information from you," says Jim Maisano, director of Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection. "Slow down. The whole scam is to rush you. They want you to make a quick, bad decision."
Yonkers police say if you get a call like this, to report it to their non-emergency number at 914-377-7900.
