Many crime trends include scams, distraction burglaries and soliciting.
Nearby LAPD Senior Lead Officer Chris Ragsdale shares some helpful advice on how you should deal with when these happen to you:
If anyone knocks, calls, emails, texts, or approaches, unsolicited by you, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR, DO NOT ENGAGE! Respectfully and politely indicate that you are not interested. If the solicitors become persistent or refuse to leave, advise them you are notifying the police and report the details to the Non-Emergency Dispatch at 1-877-275-5273.
Be aware that another trend has been Distraction Burglaries. In these incidents a person posing as a utility worker, roofer or tree trimmer knocks on your front or side door and states they need to access your backyard.
The suspect will lure you into the back of your residence while a second suspect will enter through the front door and quickly ransack areas inside the home seeking Jewelry, cash and small valuables. In most cases the suspects stay in contact and communicate by cellular telephone or two way radios. Other methods of operation have been female suspects who claim their pet or small child went into your backyard.
Whenever receiving emails from financial institutions or retail stores advising you “click here” or providing a direct link to follow in the email, NEVER CLICK ON THE LINK! This is a phishing scam!
Another recent scam has been persons calling and claiming to be from the power company or other utility. The caller demands immediate payment or the power or other utilities will be shut off. In most of the scams, the caller directs the resident to purchase cash debit cards at a retail location and provide the card numbers and pin number as payment.
Just to reiterate, if you receive anything from anywhere, unsolicited, DO NOT RESPOND!
- Solicitors, regardless of if they are selling a product, offering a service, seeking a donation or, political in nature, should be turned away.
- If someone knocks on your door and says you have to step out of your home, especially to go to your backyard, CALL 911 immediately!
- When logging into online accounts always use the saved link on your browser or type in the web address on your own.
- When making wire transfers, ALWAYS verbally verify and confirm the wire instructions prior to completing the wire transfer.
- You may report Internet scams and crime to www.ic3.gov.