Mon Valley residents fall prey to scams
State police are investigating two separate incidents in which area residents were scammed out of money.
On Thursday, an East Millsboro man lost $600 to a scam perpetrated a by person pretending to be a member of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
State police said the 51-year-old was contacted by phone at his Isabella Road home in Luzerne Township by a person who told him he needed to put $600 on a gift card “for an incident which had occurred in Texas.”
Police said the man put the money on a gift card and provided the caller with the information for its use.
After he did so, however, the man realized he may have been scammed, police said.
According to a report, “The victim tried to take the money back off the gift card but it was already gone. He tried to contact the person … to get his money back but was unsuccessful.”
The alleged victim also gave the fake DEA agent his Social Security number, police said.
In a separate incident on Feb. 12, police investigated another scam involving a 72-year-old Charleroi woman.
Police said the woman called a fake Amazon number to get reimbursed for gift cards that were not working properly.
She lost the value of $1,800 in gift cards, according to police.