Purcellville residents beware of scams

By Ben Nett

As I walk door-to-door in Purcellville, meeting residents as part of my campaign for Town Council, I take the opportunity to share a warning about increasing scams targeting our citizens.

Fraud is a multi-billion dollar problem, yearly, and our status as one of the wealthiest towns in the wealthiest county in the United States makes us a prime target. Those successfully targeted include young and old, rich and working poor, white-collar professionals with advanced degrees and blue-collar workers with high school diplomas.   

The victims of these scams represent every demographic and socioeconomic status. Victim losses of the cases I have personally worked range from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. One such case turned federal, leading to a SWAT team takedown in a Purcellville neighborhood and the disruption of a nationwide theft and money-laundering network with multiple arrests nationwide.

Successful resolutions of these cases, however, are few and far between. Put simply, law enforcement does not have the resources to thoroughly investigate every fraud. This is due to manpower shortages, the complexity of financial crimes investigations and, frankly, limited technical expertise on the part of most law enforcement professionals. The “probability of solvability” is our metric. 

What all victims have in common is a deep-seeded feeling of shame. “I should have known better,” they tell me. “I can’t believe I fell for that” is another frequent utterance. “I knew something wasn’t right, but I went along with it anyway.”

This sense of guilt often leads to delays in reporting the crime to law enforcement, which further hinders successful outcomes. Even when the crime is solved and the perpetrator apprehended, restitution is another battle unto itself.

With that in mind, I implore my fellow citizens to heed the following and, further, have a sit-down discussion with your loved ones in order to mitigate vulnerabilities. As an underlying principle, remember this: If you don’t know the caller, don’t trust the caller.” That goes for emails, knocks on your door, text messages, pop-ups on your computer, and any other unsolicited outreach. If you’re not the one initiating the dialogue, be suspicious. 

Indications of a possible scam include the following: Being approached out of the blue; being asked for your personal details and/or bank details; being put under pressure to make a decision; being asked to keep it a secret; being offered something that seems too good to be true. 

It’s also important to understand that scammers usually sound very nice and polite on the phone, exercise great patience, and can be very convincing. They are expert manipulators and have enough experience to anticipate questions and expressions of doubt and thus provide reassurances in order to deceive you.

Today’s financial scams are ever-evolving, thanks to new technologies like artificial intelligence. Scammers are now able to capture and manipulate the voices of your loved ones, indicating they are in distress and in need of immediate financial help. Caller ID can be manipulated to display absolutely anything, to include “Police.” Indeed, law enforcement is often impersonated, with scammers sending phony but very official-looking arrest warrants or supposed failure to appear notices for jury duty, simultaneously demanding payment of fees to avoid immediate arrest. 

If you believe you are speaking to a scammer, hang up or otherwise disengage and notify police. If you give the scammers the information they want, your money may be gone for good. Financial transactions involving apps, Bitcoin, gift cards, overseas wire transfers and the like can be impossible to trace. Again, law enforcement does not have the resources to thoroughly investigate every successful scam. 

Share this information with your family members, young and old, and report fraud attempts through the Federal Trade Commission’s official reporting site at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov. If you believe you may have provided sensitive information to a scammer, you can place a fraud alert on your credit report. Free weekly online credit reports are available from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. 

Purcellville was ranked the “Safest City” in Virginia for 2024 based on available data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System. Let’s work together to make Purcellville the most fraud-proof city in Virginia.

Carl B. “Ben” Nett is a former member of the Presidential Protective Division of the U.S. Secret Service, a former Intelligence Officer with the National Clandestine Service of the CIA, and the former Director of the Military Commissions Privilege Team at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is on a second career with the Purcellville Police Department and routinely handles financial fraud investigations. To obtain a free copy of his Scam Awareness Brochure, contact Ben at nettfortowncouncil.com.