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1 min read Bail

While Bail Scams Continue to Plague Consumers Across the Country, Bail Agents Step up to Help

Nicole Martinez, President of the Colorado Association of Professional Bail Sureties, wrote an op-ed for the Gunnison Country Times this week about a consumer scam that is making its way across Colorado as well as the rest of the country.
While Bail Scams Continue to Plague Consumers Across the Country, Bail Agents Step up to Help

Nicole Martinez, President of the Colorado Association of Professional Bail Sureties, wrote an op-ed for the Gunnison Country Times this week about a consumer scam that is making its way across Colorado as well as the rest of the country. The scam is focused specifically on families and bail bonds. Scammers are using sophisticated technology to scam families out of potentially thousands of dollars. One of these scams involves scraping jail and arrest data to identify people that have recently been arrested. They then do detailed searches on each person identifying friends and family members. Then, pretending to be a bail agent, tell the person that they can bail them out if they send them money. Sometimes the scammers call a family about a family member that hasn't been arrested, but they still say the same thing and scam the family out of potentially thousands of dollars.

In her op-ed, Ms. Martinez tries to educate Colorado families on what to look out for and how to avoid being taken advantage of. An excerpt of the article is below as well as a link to the full op-ed.

The new bail scam

How Criminals Are Using Fear, Technology and Deception to Target Colorado Families

By Nicole Martinez, President, Colorado Association of Professional Sureties

When a loved one is arrested, families often experience a flood of emotions all at once; fear, confusion, urgency and uncertainty. Unfortunately, scammers know this. Increasingly, criminals are exploiting these moments of crisis to steal money from unsuspecting victims, and their tactics are becoming more sophisticated every day.

For years, scammers relied on phone calls, fake identities and fabricated stories to trick people into sending money. Today, advances in technology have made these schemes even more convincing. Artificial intelligence can now clone a person's voice using only a short audio clip found online. Caller ID can be spoofed to make a phone number appear legitimate. Criminals can impersonate law enforcement officers, bail agents, attorneys or even family members in distress. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>>>

Published by:

Eric Granof

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