Photo courtesy of Greg Watson.
Greg Watson, manager of The UPS Store on U.S. 31 in Vestavia Hills
Greg Watson, manager of The UPS Store on U.S. 31 in Vestavia Hills, was recognized by Vestavia Hills Police Chief Shane Ware in April at the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon for his role in preventing fraud against area residents. Watson, who has developed a practiced eye for scam activity over the years, in December helped stop an elderly woman from shipping a $39,000 cashier’s check to a scammer posing as a Publishers Clearing House representative.
Some people are quick to call law enforcement officers heroes because of the continual work they do to put their lives on the line to protect the public, but there also are “everyday heroes” among us, Vestavia Hills Police Chief Shane Ware said.
Ware recognized one of those in April at the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon, held at the Old Overton Country Club in Liberty Park.
Greg Watson, manager of The UPS Store on U.S. 31 in Vestavia Hills, has played a key role in preventing numerous people from becoming victims to fraudulent scams over the years, Ware said. And when Watson calls with a tip, police are quick to jump on it, Ware said.
In December of last year, Watson prevented a woman in her 70s from an assisted living center from shipping a $39,000 cashier’s check to a scammer.
The woman had been contacted by someone claiming to be with Publishers Clearing House, saying her late husband had won a new car and all she had to do to receive the car was pay the taxes on it, Watson said.
“We knew immediately that was wrong,” Watson said.
She already had sent some money through the U.S. Postal Service, as well as her driver’s license number, Social Security number and bank account numbers, and he and a police officer had to talk her out of sending the additional $39,000 cashier’s check, he said.
“That was a fight within itself,” Watson said. “She wanted that car. She really did. Me and the officer were begging her, ‘Please don’t.’”
She finally agreed not to send the check after they Googled the address to which she was sending the check and saw on a street-level view that it was a vacant house, he said.
“We have learned that if Greg calls us with information, we have to stop what we’re doing and make a Facebook post,” Ware said. “We have to do that to eliminate other victims.”
Scammers frequently target a lot of people in the same area before moving on to other communities, he said.
Watson said he has learned to spot certain signs that someone is being scammed. The customer usually is directed to bring the check or cash to the shipping location at the end of the day and send it “next day air” so that it is in transit for a short period of time, he said. The customer sometimes is nervous or upset, and 90% of the time, it is an elderly customer, he said.
Frequently, scammers ask customers to send cash or a cashier’s check, and sometimes they even ask the person to send the cash spread out inside of a book, he said.
It’s also not uncommon for the victim to still be on the phone with the scammer because the scammer wants to make them unable to call anyone else, he said. “They really bully them. They’re trying to scare them.”
A common scam is someone claiming to be a law enforcement officer or with a court office, saying the victim failed to pay a speeding ticket and needs to send a cashier’s check to avoid having a warrant put out for their arrest, he said. Another common scam is someone claiming to be a family member who needs bail money to get out of jail.
Ware advises people to be particularly wary if someone contacts them claiming to be from a bank, the government or a law enforcement agency and to never give out private information if one of those institutions initiates contact. People also should look out for suspicious links, web addresses, and strange spellings or improper wording in emails.
