Area residents should be alert to recent scams involving phone calls and computer access.
The Austin-American Statesman recently reported that someone was contacting people whose phone numbers were in the newspaper’s classified ads and asking for credit card numbers and other information.
On Monday, Advertiser publisher Mark Gwin said although the scam apparently hadn’t involved the Statesman’s affiliated Austin Community Newspapers, which includes the Advertiser and The Smithville Times, residents should still be on the alert.
“The callers had gotten phone numbers out of classified ads and were posing as employees of the newspaper,” Gwin said. “They would say something like, ‘Your credit card number didn’t go through,’ or ‘We transposed the credit card numbers.’”
Then the caller would ask for the full credit card number, Gwin added.
“All scams are the same; you shouldn’t give out personal information over the phone unless you make the call,” Gwin said.

England calling – again
Once again, a scam based on a “stranded in England and need money” e-mail has hit a Bastrop resident.
Dock Jackson, who works for the office of Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald, said he was the victim this week of an email sent to hundreds of his colleagues claiming that Jackson was stranded in England and needed financial help.
“The email said I was stuck in the U.K., lost my passport, credit cards and I needed money to come home,” Jackson said.
Jackson said, as far as he knows, no one fell for the scam.
He said the e-mail went out to state and national political organizations with which he was involved, including one of the campaign groups for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she was running for the Democratic nomination for president.
Many Bastrop County employees also received the e-mail, including Sheriff Terry Pickering.
“When I got home I saw the e-mail but I had already been contacted by Ken Cruise and knew not to open the e-mail,” said Pickering, referring to a warning from the county’s integrated technology expert, Cruise.
Jackson said some of his colleagues tried to learn the origin or identify of the scammer.
“Some of my friends played with the e-mail and tried to get as much information as they could,” Jackson said, adding they were able to get the scammer’s Internet processing number.
“I am going to the Attorney General with copies of the e-mail,” Jackson said. “The Bastrop Police Department has already sent out an alert to all neighboring counties.”