Scams continue to victimize local residents.
Palm Springs Police Chief Tom Ceccarelli tells us about a recent one in which an elderly woman got an email claiming to be from PayPal and stating that $500 would be withdrawn from her bank account for a purchase.
The victim called the phone number in the email and the scammers got her account information as well as her laptop information and then locked her out of the computer.
They took money from her account and then told her she needed to go get gift cards to get her money back. But that's not all...
"They sent a handicap van to pick her up. They end up charging her $200 for the van. She gets the gift cards and then she gets scammed out of the money for the van, the gift cards and her laptop's locked out."
The chief says things could've turned out even worse for the woman had she gotten into the wrong van.
And he warns about a laundry list of other scams that are going around. They include impersonation scams in which people claim they're calling from the IRS or Social Security, or even a relative claiming to be kidnapped and needing ransom money to get free.
Ceccarelli has this advice:
"The biggest thing I can tell people is if anyone asks for a gift card or crypto currency, anything like that, that's an immediate sign of a scam. Call the police department up. Call our non-emergency number. We'll help you out. Or call a loved one that you trust that can give you good advice."