PORT ANGELES — More than two weeks have passed since Port Angeles, Sequim and other areas of Clallam County were first hit with a credit/debit card phone scam asking residents for their bank account numbers.
The calls are still coming in, but Port Angeles police and local banks are getting fewer complaints about the scam.
“It sounds like it’s kind of tapered off for now,” said Port Angeles Police Officer Duane Benedict on Friday.
The calls — which were counted by the hundreds after the scam started on Feb. 18 — have slowed in the past few days, Benedict said.
Thousands of Clallam County residents — mostly in Port Angeles but also in Sequim and the West End — have received automated phone calls in which they are told that their credit or debit cards are being suspended by their financial institution.
They were asked to provide such personal information as their credit card numbers.
The originating phone numbers are “masked” by the perpetrators. Call back numbers appearing on caller IDs led to legitimate businesses and individuals from here to Georgia.
Benedict said he spoke with a person from a private communications center in California, who said the phone numbers may have been hijacked.
“He has some information, but I haven’t been able to reach him,” Benedict said on Friday.
“Other than that, I haven’t heard any complaints in the last couple days.”
Anyone who has provided the scam callers with bank account numbers should phone their financial institution to stop use of the credit/debit card, and contact police.
Unless personal banking information has been given out, police and banks say it’s not necessary to report the phone calls.
“I got one on my phone,” Port Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Brian Smith said.
“I called it back and it said, ‘This is not a working number.'”
Smith said the phone scam is similar to e-mail scams where people are asked to send money to places like Nigeria.
“It’s annoying,” Smith said. “Obviously, somebody is going to great lengths to find that one person they can get information from.”
Police and the FBI say the perpetrators are most likely operating outside of the area, possibly in a foreign country. They typically move from one place to another, the FBI has said.
In this case, some of the messages are asking customers to call Sound Community Bank or Strait-View Credit Union because their accounts have been suspended.
Some of the intended victims don’t have accounts at those banks.
Scott Boyer, Sound Community Bank spokesman, said customers at the Port Angeles and Sequim branches are getting fewer scam calls.
“What they’re telling me in Port Angeles and Sequim is the calls have decreased dramatically this week, but we’re still getting a couple a day,” Boyer said.
“We’re taking a real active role telling every customer that comes in the bank to expect a call. We’re telling them what’s going on.”
Sound Community Bank has offices in Seattle, Tacoma and Mountlake Terrace, as well as Port Angeles and Sequim.
The scam calls were originally going just to cell phones. They are now being received on land lines as well, Boyer said.
Some of the intended victims are now being offered a lower credit card rate if they provide personal information.
“The scam continues to morph into a different character,” Boyer said.
Sound Community Bank officials say some of the calls were coming from Romania.
In response, the bank has blocked transactions from Romania unless a customer is traveling there, Boyer said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
