Western Kentucky law enforcement agencies warn of increased scam calls
GRAVES COUNTY, Ky. (KBSI) – Law Enforcement agencies across Western Kentucky are warning citizens to stay on high alert, as they’ve seen an increase in scam calls.
Jeremy Prince is a Chief Deputy with the Graves County Sheriff’s Office; he shares they currently have between 7 and 10 victims who have gotten scammed under the most recent phone scam.
Deputy Prince explains the scammer will call and tell the victim that they are with their bank and they’re debit card has been compromised and ask them to read the 16 digits on their debit card number.
“They confirmed all 16 digits and then the scammer said, ‘okay, yes, that one has been, compromised. I need you to put in an envelope, put it inside your own mailbox, and we will have a courier come pick it up’. So, at that time, they contacted a delivery service just to go make these pickups” says Prince.
According to an FBI scam report Kentuckians lost 74 million dollars to scams in 2024, which prompted a state initiative called Stop Scams. Deputy Prince shares that in these investigations the scammer is in another country a lot of the time so it’s very hard to track, and a large part of the time victims don’t get their money back.
He says you should never give your debit card information out over the phone, your bank will automatically have that in their system, and if you become a victim of a scam, report it to the Federal Trade Commission.
“If it’s too good to be true it probably is if you’re getting free money, if you’re getting a vehicle, you know, if they’re going to send you a pallet of cash, you know, we’ve had things like that before” says Prince. Just disconnect the phone.”
For more information on how to report scams: ReportFraud.ftc.gov,
