WCPD / Headquarters
POTENTIAL SCAM ALERT!
You may have noticed in recent days that someone is attempting – or pretending -- to sell sweatshirts with the WCPD patch on the front. This effort has the common characteristics of a scam.
We have observed, and removed, a series of messages or message replies posted by a changing cast of characters. In those replies, the poster offers hooded sweatshirts for sale and provides a link to purchase one. The link and the name of the online “store” also changes often – another hallmark of an Internet scam.
For starters, WCPD’s social media policy does not permit anyone to use our sites for a commercial purpose. Even if this is a legit business, these posts would be inappropriate and removed. But the likelihood of this being legitimate is not very high.
One day it was “Brian” who was offering the items for sale. His profile showed a smiling middle-age guy with two cute kids on either side. A day later came the same post from a woman. On yet another day, the profile was from a company and in a foreign language. It was not possible to view the posters’ profiles or message them on Facebook – also hallmarks of a phony on the worldwide web.
We have blocked these users, but then another newbie profile pops up. We should mention also that a number of fire departments in Westchester are dealing with the same nonsense.
Our best advice is this: do not click on any such link. The WCPD does not sell, or benefit from the sale of, apparel with our insignia on it. And clicking on a suspicious link often results in financial fraud or allows that other party to infect your computer with a virus, spyware, malware, ransomware and all sorts of other pain-in-your-neck ware.
So don’t click it -- just stick it to them by ignoring these messages. If no one takes the bait, maybe they will go away.
Original source can be found here.
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