On the weekend encompassing January 30th through February 1st, many Pelham citizens and businesses received a recording whereas the voice stated the call was from one of the local banks and that there had been some fraudulent activity on the recipient's bank account and the account in question had been "frozen".  The recording further instructed the reciever of the call to press a certain number in order to "unfreeze" the account.  Once the number was pressed, the recipient of the call was to enter their account number utilizing the key pads on the phone.  It is suspected that while doing this, the victim was in-fact transferring their account number information to those perpetrating the scam.

Banks, credit card companies, and other reputable businesses generally do not call customers utilizing recordings to report suspected fraud on an account.  They also generally don't asky for personal or account information if it is a call generated by the company.

Citizens are strongly warned not to give out any financial or personal information when contacted by anyone via telephone or e-mail.  Instead, Citizens are urged to hang up and call the institution themselves, utilizing numbers published in your local telephone directory or on the back of their credit card.  This will ensure that they are not unwittingly providing information to a scammer.

If you feel that you may have been victimized by this scam or any other crime, please contact the Pelham Police Department at 205-620-6550. 

As this scam apparantly phoned many in our area, you need not contact us unless you followed the instructions on the call and provided personal or account information.