{"id":300943,"date":"2014-05-14T02:35:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T07:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?p=300943"},"modified":"2014-05-15T02:15:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T07:15:25","slug":"residents-warned-about-telephone-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=300943","title":{"rendered":"Residents Warned about Telephone Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Better<\/a>TYLER — BBB has received reports from consumers regarding a recent telephone scam. Individuals are being contacted by telephone under the pretense that the callers are attempting to collect money for hot checks which were written several years ago. Residents are further advised that if they do not wire money (hundreds to thousands of dollars) to a provided account number, law enforcement will come out and arrest them in the upcoming days. The callers are purportedly calling from 866 area codes and indicate they are a collection firm representing the Hot Check Division of various District Attorneys\u2019 offices. Law enforcement may make a courtesy call to notify that a claim has been made, said Andy Dunklin, Constable with Precinct 2 of Smith County. \u201cThey may collect fines, however, they will never collect the amount of the hot check.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you receive a call from someone trying to collect a debt, BBB advises:
\n\u2022\tDo not give information to someone who initiates the call without verifying who they are first. Look up the number of the business or organization; do not call the number provided by the caller.
\n\u2022\tNever wire money to someone you don\u2019t know.
\n\u2022\tCall law enforcement to verify whether or not there is a warrant is out for your arrest.
\n\u2022\tIf you believe you owe money to the court, contact the county and pay your fines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a customer has written a bad check, the receiver of the check will usually turn it over to a collection agency or the hot check division with the DA\u2019s office to retrieve funds. After an allotted amount of time, a warrant will be issued if they have not repaid the money\u201d, said Ken Hartley, Security\/Loss Prevention Officer with Texas Bank & Trust. \u201cIf someone receives one of these calls or notifications and had not first been notified by their banking institution, then they need to verify it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consumers can verify the caller by hanging up and checking with their financial institution to see if there are any actual debt collection cases against them. Likewise, they can also call the Constable\u2019s office or whatever department the \u201ccollector\u201d is claiming to work for. For more tips on how to be a savvy consumer, go to bbb.org. To report fraudulent activity or unscrupulous business practices, call the BBB Hotline: 903-581-8373.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TYLER — BBB has received reports from consumers regarding a recent telephone scam. Individuals are being contacted by telephone under the pretense that the callers are attempting to collect money for hot checks which were written several years ago. Residents are further advised that if they do not wire money (hundreds to thousands of dollars) … Continue reading Residents Warned about Telephone Scam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 01:54:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300949,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300943\/revisions\/300949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}