Joan Campbell, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office community affairs coordinator, spoke at the May 5 Sun City West Sunrise Lions Club meeting.

She and her community affairs team provide safety information for parents, students and organizations on a variety of topics. Being aware of trending scams, via phone calls, text messages, postal mail and emails is an important prevention tool to help residents not become victims of crime, according to Campbell. 

Some of the recurring scams include grandparent scam, jury duty, electricity/power company, IRS or Treasury Department scams, “Sweetheart” scams, sweepstakes/lottery scams, charity scams and Medicare testing scams.

There are new or trending scams of faking a kidnapping, video DEA or police drug activity, a compromised Social Security number, refunds, email account issues, text messaging links, job scams, COVID scams and cryptocurrency investments. Some future items of concern are QR codes, deep fakes, devices in homes, security cameras safety, free apps and medical information.

There have been older methods requesting payment via a wire transfer, gift cards and video cash banking apps, such as Venmo.  The new methods involve cryptocurrency, ATMS, QR codes and Anydesk App.