MIDDLEBURY — Police in Middlebury are warning area residents to be wary of scammers calling this week.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 11, the Middlebury Police Department received numerous reports of Addison County residents receiving automated phone calls that said their debit cards were “locked,” according to Middlebury Police Sgt. Jason Covey. In each case the messages prompted the potential victims to enter their account number to “unlock” the debit cards.
As of Thursday morning, none of the complainants provided their account information to the callers, Covey wrote in a press release.
Thus far, all of the calls have originated from either 813-381-5251 or 303-557-0153. The recordings for each call identified the bank as one of the following: Vermont Federal Credit Union, New England Federal Credit Union or Key Bank. In several of the cases the potential victims did in fact have accounts with the bank specified in the message.
All of the involved banks have been contacted and verified these calls are fraudulent, Covey said. Police are investigating the origin of the calls.
All residents are reminded to never provide personal information over the telephone unless they are certain of the identity of the caller and to report any suspicious calls immediately to their financial institution and their local law enforcement agency.