Houston Police just called me and asked if I wanted to donate money to their shopping for kids program. He said he would bring me police stickers for the car and a receipt for tax purposes. They said to make the check out to Houston Police Dept. I dont know if it is legit or not.
Call your bank and tell them to put a hold on it. It will cost you depending on your bank's policies. If the donation is less than the cost of the hold, just let the donation go through if you were indeed scammed. Or, you can just call the HPD and ask if they have such program to verify if it's legit.
Never, ever, ever give out personal information when you receive an unsolicited phone call! Repeat this x100! If you didn't get scammed consider yourself lucky, and if you did consider it a lesson learned. If you haven't given the money yet, follow Swoly's advice! ....... ....... .......
I hate people you try to be nice to them and they take advantage of you. Anyways I called them back and told them that I checked and we didnt have the money. I already gave him the address of my restaurant to go pick it up. I hope they dont try to pull something stupid.
If he does show up, ask him for identification and verification of the program. If it's indeed legitimate, he'll definitely have some proof for you. Also, you can call the police department to see if they have a program like this. How much was he asking for anyways?
he was asking for 200 bucks for child that needed to be funded so they could go shopping at target. I said I would donate 200.
Our rule of thumb when we get a phone solicitation: "We don't commit to anything over the phone. If you send us something in the mail, we will be happy to look it over."
Last time I got scammed is when I thought I ordered a fine looking busty dime from BP and a fat b**** showed up.
Answering an unknown phone number or land line = rookie mistake. Once someone picks up they know they've got a sucker.
Don't worry...we will explain to little Timmy how he won't get his shopping spree now. You see, Timmy, sometimes people commit to causes and then back out of their obligations. So, no x-mas for you, Timmy. Sincerely, Santa
What number did they call from? You should be able to do some reverse lookup. But if it was from an unknown number, then yeah, you probably shouldn't have answered
99% sure that this is legit. The police unions call businesses all the time looking for donations. As soon as you register with the state, you start getting calls. I got a sweet sticker that I believe has gotten me out of 3 or so speeding tickets (cop pulls me over, walks past the sticker, tells me he's going to let me off with a warning, which never happened without the sticker). You can identify the true scammers because they want things like your social security number over the phone. They will certainly never show up at your home or meet face-to-face. I've nothing specific to a "shopping for kids" program, but what you are describing fits the MO of the real police.
Good luck to the guy going to cash a check made out to the HPD and then strangely endorsed over to the person cashing the check. I would not want to be that guy.
It was probably legit, but what's your routing, checking account and pin and I'll double check it for you. Seriously, it's probably legit but you can call the police to verify.
Well he asked for my dad and he wasn't here he left a message to my mom and I called him back. He left a 713 number down and he left his name.
It's legit. The company I work for used to pick up these donations for HPD. They now use a cheaper alternative.
