Local Detective Warns Of Increasing Internet-Based Scams

By Andrew Gorosko

Newtown police report an increase in Internet-based crimes against local residents by criminals seeking to financially exploit unsuspecting people through the far-flung communications network.

Police Detective Sergeant Robert Tvardzik said the town police’s detective unit has been kept busy recently investigating a variety of Internet-based crimes perpetrated against town residents. Such investigations follow complaints made to the police by the victims about scams designed to bilk them of money.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” Det Sgt Tvardzik has said of the financial enticements that swindlers use to lure unsuspecting Internet users into money scams.

“We’re seeing more victims that live in Newtown…We’ve had an increase [in crimes]…It’s out there. It’s increasing…We’ve had a major increase in the last six months,” he said.

Police have investigated six Internet-based swindles against local people during the past several months, Det Sgt Tvardzik said.

Police recently have investigated two Nigeria-based motor vehicle scams, in which criminals use the Internet to defraud people of cash in connection with bogus motor vehicle sales transactions, he said.

After advertising a used vehicle for sale, the seller is contacted via the Internet by a potential buyer, often from Nigeria, who offers to pay the seller a sum well exceeding the asking price. The buyer sends the seller an apparently legitimate money order or cashier’s check for an amount well exceeding the asking price and tells the seller to keep the excess funds, thus giving the seller an incentive to cash the money order or check, after which it is discovered that the document was a high-quality counterfeit, resulting in the seller suffering a financial loss.

Recently, two local people were bilked of approximately $20,000 each through such scams, Det Sgt Tvardzik said.

If not via the Internet, the bogus buyers contact by the unsuspecting sellers via telephone in such swindles, he said.

The detective sergeant also warned residents to be wary of scams perpetrated through the use of fraudulent eBay, Pay-Pal or Amazon.com solicitations via the Internet.

In a practice known as “phishing,” criminals seek to obtain “new” personal information about others via the Internet, he said. Such subterfuges are simply the means by which criminals obtain people’s personal data, such as social security numbers or credit card numbers to perpetrate financial scams, he said.

“Do not give any personal information on the phone or over the Internet,” Det Sgt Tvardzik stressed. “Identity theft is on the rise.”

Considering the far-flung nature of the Internet, the point of origin of the crimes is typically elsewhere. The point of origin of the crime is the jurisdiction within which it would be prosecuted. The scope of the Internet makes such prosecutions complex propositions, according to Det Sgt Tvardzik.

Identity theft via the Internet is an insidious crime, he noted, explaining that it may take victims a matter of months to realize that they have been victimized.

To curb identity theft, he urged that people not divulge any personal information to those soliciting such data via the Internet or via telephone, that people frequently check and reconcile their credit card statements, and that people do not open any suspicious emails on the Internet.

During the past several years, town police have investigated about 60 cases of Internet-based crimes against local residents, Det Sgt Tvardzik said.