×

Scams

We live in a time of increasingly sophisticated scam artists. Gone are the days when we simply got emails from Nigerian princes whose millions were stashed in a U.S. bank and could only be accessed by a U.S. citizen, and that citizen could be you, if only you would first send the prince $4,000 so he could pay to access some records.

Or something like that. No, those scams seem far to broad now, not specific enough to the times or to individuals.

Today, we have the grandparent scams, the IRS scams, the water department scams and now the Merrimack lottery winner massive millions scam.

The state Attorney General’s office has received reports of email, phone and text messages being sent to random citizens pretending to represent the lottery prize winner. The messages claim that the citizen is the beneficiary of a large amount of money from the winner and then asks for the person’s banking information. In some instances, the scam messages provide the name and email address of a New Hampshire law firm.

Guess what? The lottery winner is not trying to contact you, the lottery winner probably isn’t trying to contact anyone, and the person or persons who claim to represent the lottery winner are:

A. Lying.

B. Trying to get you to believe the lie.

C. Trying to get you to send them some money.

Remember the Nigerian scam? Same thing, different time.

So please, if you hear from one of these low-lifes, don’t send him any money. Don’t believe for one second that the lotter winner desperately needs your assistance.

Don’t believe anything like this — your grandson isn’t in jail in Alabama, the IRS isn’t after you, you have probably not failed to pay your water bill — because they are just (say the word three times) scams.

And if you get a call or an email like this do not respond, and do not engage the caller; simply hang up. For more information, call the Attorney General’s Consumer Information line at 888-468-4454.