Like the Twinkie, scams full of nothing but fluff

When the end of the world comes, what's likely to be left?

Ugly bugs? Spongecake with super staying power? Pickled old rock 'n' rollers?

And apparently we can add scams and scammers to that unique list as well.

Perhaps not quite as logically likely to survive the end of days as are those pesky cockroaches, the indescribable Twinkie or the ageless Rolling Stones, money-fleecing scammers nonetheless have an uncanny ability to outlast common sense and rear their ugly heads time and time again.

No matter how much publicity scams receive, they just won't die.

No matter how much common sense seems to outweigh any incomprehensible notion we've won the Liverpool lottery or the Irish Sweepstakes, victims bite hard.

And no matter how often butchers or bankers or postal inspectors remind us that if something seems like it's too good to be true, it probably is, people take the bait hook, line and sinker.

Scams, it seems, survive by outwitting and outlasting all that wisdom and knowledge. Time and time again, good people fall victim to their own inherent desires to be good friends, aid a family member or even strike it rich on their own.

It's happening again as we speak. And it's happening right here in Putnam County.

Greencastle Police Chief Tom Sutherlin sounded a warning of that at the recent February City Council meeting.

Yes, the scammers are at it again, calling local residents on the phone, pretending to be someone they're not -- all in the name of stealing your money.

"We're getting a lot of scam phone calls again," Chief Sutherlin advised.

And with it being income tax season, many of those callers are claiming to represent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

"The caller demands money, claiming to be from the IRS," Chief Sutherlin warned of a scam that apparently has more staying power than the Energizer Bunny.

Pretending to be collecting overdue taxes, the caller may request payment through the purchase of a pre-paid card to be transferred to the caller.

"The IRS does not work that way," the chief assured, asking for back-up from City Councilman Mark Hammer, who runs his own local accounting firm.

Hammer agreed that the IRS will not call you to initiate action. And certainly it would not threaten someone with huge fines or arrest as these callers seem to do.

If the IRS has official business with you, its agents will first make contact via official IRS correspondence, he said.

And most importantly, the IRS would never ask a person for his or her debit or credit card number over the telephone.

Sutherlin's advice is to write down as much information as possible about the call and the caller, obtaining a callback phone number if you can, and then contacting the Indiana Attorney General's Office (1-800-382-5516).

Sadly, the chief said, "we can't investigate these calls at the local level."

"Most of the calls are coming from out of state or overseas," he noted, indicating that departments like the Greencastle City Police have neither the manpower nor the resources available to investigate such issues properly.

Another popular scam that won't go away is the Grandparent Scam in which bogus calls are made to people likely to have a grandchild in his or her late teens or early 20s.

The caller typically pretends to be that grandchild, usually in trouble and in need of money in order to get out of jail after some indiscretion he or she would not to want a parent to know about. Or the caller may be in need of money to repair a car that's been in a wreck in some far-off location or to settle up with a person they've been involved with in a supposed accident.

"We had that happen again just last week," Chief Sutherlin said of a caller pretending to be a local person's granddaughter.

Often names and information are gleaned from Internet visits to Facebook and other places where people share way too much about themselves.

In a "new twist," Sutherlin reported, the bogus caller "even put someone on the phone claiming to be the granddaughter's attorney."

Tough as it can be to separate emotion from reality, common sense should prevail, Sutherlin suggested.

The chief advised anyone receiving such a call to get a callback number for the person if possible, hang up and then call the parents of the purported grandchild to check out the story.

The scams and get-rich-quick schemes don't end there, of course.

Prize winnings from a lottery or some other drawing reportedly due some unsuspecting recipient is another popular scam that won't go away.

Calls or emails bombard a would-be victim with places to send a sum of money to pay for processing the supposed winnings. Victims send hundreds or thousands of dollars and never see any money in return.

Anyone getting such a call should, first of all, ignore it. Common sense should remind you that you didn't buy a ticket in the Tibetan lottery and don't have an uncle in Kathmandu.

If the caller is persistent, once again the best option is to notify the Indiana Attorney General's Office.

Above all, remember this: As officials say, if it's too good to be true, it probably is ...