Crime & Safety

Tech-Savvy Crime Growing Concern in Huntley

Huntley residents falling victim to variety of scams, identity theft and fraud—many cases perpetrated through the Internet and social media. Check back tomorrow for tips on how to avoid becoming a victim.


Huntley Police Chief John Perkins remembers how violent crimes shot up during the recession of the early 1980s.

“We had armed robberies skyrocket,” the chief said.

The latest recession hasn’t translated in any spikes in violent property crimes, he said.

“On the other hand, the Internet crimes and scams have gone sky-high,” Perkins said.

A day doesn’t go by that Huntley police get a report of an identity theft or debit card fraud or a swindle, he said.

According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the top three crimes it dealt with in 2010 were nondelivery of payment for merchandise, identity theft and auction fraud.

The center received 303,809 complaints of Internet crimes last year, the second-highest total in IC3's 10-year history, according to its website.

Huntley police are seeing their share of these crimes – in various forms – happening to residents of all ages. But local police are left with little power to investigate or make arrests.

“There’s not much we can do,” Perkins said, explaining Huntley police do not have jurisdiction in the locations where many of the scams originate.

“It’s like the wild, wild West out there and there is very little going on to stop it,” he said.

Growing concern locally

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has a list of its top crimes, which is similar to the Huntley Police Department’s list. Here, the top crimes are scams, identity theft and debit card fraud.

There seems to be a new swindle every week, Deputy Chief Todd Fulton said.

A scam that Huntley police investigated recently involved a 70-year-old woman who received a call from someone who said the woman’s grandson was being held in jail in Spain.

The person said the grandson needed $3,700 to get him out of jail, Fulton said. The call was followed by a phone call purportedly from the U.S. Embassy in Spain, so it sounded authentic, the victim told police.

She sent the money but later realized her grandson was not traveling in Spain. Perkins said she lost the cash.

Another swindle, which is one that the FBI is warning about, involves criminals gaining access to a victim’s email addresses.

In another recent Huntley case, a man announced on his Facebook page that he was going on a 10-day vacation to London. The man went to a public library to check his email and failed to sign out.

Someone got into his account and got a history of his email, Perkins said. The suspect then sent 70 people on the man’s email list a note that he was stranded in London and needed some money wired to a bank.

A friend, who also lives in Huntley, got the email and went to his bank to get the cash, Perkins said. The friend “was at the bank getting ready to send the money, so he called the man,” he said. Everything was fine with the man vacationing in London and the two realized it was a scam, he said.

“Most people are good people and their first instinct is to help,” Perkins said. Criminals use that, along with fear and greed, to defraud people, he said.

Sweepstakes scams continue to be popular among criminals. In a common one, victims are told they have won a sweepstakes or lottery but must send in money to pay initial fees. The victim can be taken for $1,000 to $5,000, authorities said.

Victims often tell officers they felt it “was too good to be true,” Perkins said. “When they sit back and think about it, it is too good to be true.”

But criminals put the victims on the spot, pressuring them to make a quick decision, he said.

Becoming a victim often highlights another human characteristic that works in favor of the criminals. A “lot of people are embarrassed and won’t call to make a report,” the chief said. “We have no idea what’s really going on” out there.

Stealing identities

Identity theft is another crime that is surging in Huntley. Identity theft long has been a problem, but it’s becoming easier for criminals to steal identities, thanks to social networking sites, Perkins said.

Criminals often log onto Facebook and learn details about a person, including their birthday, then use the information to commit fraud or conduct a burglary or theft, he said.

“People in this day and age put everything out there,” the chief said. “Everyone wants to friend everyone so you friend everyone … even if you don’t know the person.”

Information taken from social networking sites is used to steal identities, personal belongings and leaves people open to fraud, he said.

Social networking and shopping sites have propelled fraud and scams, which have been increasing steadily in Huntley.

“There’s not much we can do,” Perkins said.

Criminals know identity theft is difficult to investigate, and “the risk is pretty low to get caught,” Perkins said. “So they figure, ‘Might as well try it.’ ”

Most swindles these days originate in Canada, Jamaica and Russia, which is why it’s difficult for Huntley police to investigate, Perkins said. Identity thefts come from everywhere. Huntley police often try to contact law enforcement in the country or city where the scam occurred, but it’s hard to get those agencies to investigate on their end. “It’s not like we can call the Kremlin and get them to investigate,” he said.

Debit card fraud growing

Even going to your local grocery store or gas station is becoming risky if you use a debit card.

Huntley police are continuing to investigate a debit card fraud at a local business, where suspects switched out a card reader with their own device, which recorded customers’ pin numbers, Fulton said. The device looks the same as the card reader, so it is hard to detect, he said.

The suspects distract the clerks to switch out the card reader but return later to retrieve the pin numbers. That can be done remotely, simply by parking outside the business once a week, he said.

In the Huntley case, about 15 residents had their pin numbers taken and the suspects used the information to do withdrawals from the victims’ bank accounts, Perkins said.

The suspects usually go to an urban area then pay someone, like a homeless person, to get the money out of an ATM, he said. None of the victims realized their bank account information had been taken until the bank informed them.

“These are roving groups that do this,” Perkins said. “We had a lot of leads, but we just didn’t have enough to charge on it.”

Savvy victims

These types of crimes happen to people across the board, the chief said.

“I don’t want to stereotype the victim as an incompetent person,” he said. Actually, “we have savvy people involved in the community who’ve come to file reports.”

The more savvy victims get taken via online scams, which sometimes are posted on Craigslist.

A common swindle is if you are selling an item, a buyer contacts you and sends a crew to pick up the merchandise with a check, Perkins said.

The buyer asks the seller to cash the check at their bank, then keep part of it and use the rest to pay the crew moving the item, Perkins said. The check, however, never clears, so the victim is out the merchandise and cash, he said. This is common in car scams, too.



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