County residents escape money scam

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Friday, June 26, 2009

NATCHEZ — When Adams County residents Willie and Claudette Blanton got a call from someone claiming to be an agent of the Federal Trade Commission, they thought it was odd.

And when the agent — calling himself Larry Fulton — told them Willie had won a lot of money, all sorts of warning bells went off in their mind.

“Basically, he said my husband had won a lot of money and in order to get that money delivered safely he had to send them $8,000,” Claudette Blanton said.

The call got more bizarre.

When Willie told the man calling himself Fulton that he didn’t have $8,000, Fulton switched the call over to a female representative, who tried to convince Willie to take out a home equity loan.

But the Blantons weren’t biting.

“I got suspicious the moment they said they wanted $8,000,” Claudette said.

Adams County Sheriff Angie Brown said the Blantons were right to be suspicious, and did the right thing by not giving out any information.

“If they are telling you you have won something but it is going to cost you something to receive it, that should be a red flag,” Brown said.

The Blantons are retired, and Claudette said she wanted to make sure other older people aren’t exploited by these scammers pretending to be representatives from the federal government.

The man called from a Washington, D.C., number — 202-470-3378 — but wanted them to transfer the money to a Las Vegas bank account.

“That was another red flag,” Claudette Blanton said.

Never give personal information, be it bank, credit card or Social Security numbers, to someone soliciting it over the phone, Brown said.

“Any time they are asking you for bank or credit card numbers, that’s something fishy,” she said.

And there’s one other rule when dealing with scammers.

“Anything that seems too good to be true, it is not true,” Brown said.