TORRINGTON — Police are warning people about phone scams after a resident who thought she won a prize wired about $4,000 to cover what she was told were associated costs.
The incident happened earlier this month, police said, when a man referring to himself as “Michael Phillips” called the woman and told her she had won $800,000 in a Nevada Sweepstakes.
Over the next several days, she wired about $4,000 to an address in Costa Rica to cover various related “charges,” police said.
She eventually learned from the Federal Trade Commission web site, http://www.ftc.gov, that she had been the victim of fraud.
The FTC advises that people say “no thanks” if they get a call from someone they don’t know who is trying to sell them something they hadn’t planned to buy.
If they pressure you to give up personal information, like a credit card or Social Security numbers, it is likely a scam, the agency says. People are advised to hang up.
By Christine Dempsey, Hartford Courant