Emerging scams are tricking people of all ages

Yahoo

05-04-2025

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — In a Facebook post, Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins sounded off a warning to the public regarding the sheer number of emerging scams in the area.
These include scams through everything from PayPal, LinkedIn, Social Security, and even Bitcoin. Watkins said people of all ages are getting tricked right now, and banks are not typically reimbursing people after they get scammed.
'We're not just seeing a couple of thousand [dollars]. We're seeing up to $100,000, which is people's life savings. So this is a big deal. We're just starting to see a major increase because this is a new crime of the ages.' Watkins said.
He also warned people to be vigilant, saying, 'Don't trust anything right now. If you get a phone call from a bank, emails, or text messages, don't trust anything. You do your own research.'
He added, 'Don't just assume who you're talking to is actually who they say they are.'
With online scams, often the scammer will try to send users to an external website that looks like it's real, but it really isn't. Scammers will try to get people to re-enter their account information, like their username or passwords. Other times, scammers may try to get people to reveal their bank account information.
The sheriff recounted a story about one person who thought they were applying for a job. When they were 'accepted' for the position, the scammer told them they needed to buy materials for the job. That way, the scammer was able to steal their bank information.
According to Watkins, they are seeing 11 or 12 different types of scams floating around, which is pretty unusual.
He added, 'We have a detective, specifically cybercrime detectives, specifically assigned to Secret Service handling a lot of these, but a lot of them are overseas, so they're hard to trace back.'
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