A fraudulent email impersonating Arlington County Treasurer Carla de la Pava is targeting local businesses and nonprofits, according to the Treasurer’s Office.
The emails use de la Pava’s name but come from an unrelated Gmail address. They carry the subject line “Arlington County Virginia/Vendor Payment” and ask recipients to help pay a vendor invoice, according to a press release from the office.
Arlington Public Schools is warning families to beware of fraudulent emails that use the school system’s branding to collect people’s personal information.
The emails ask recipients to click a link and provide usernames, passwords and other information, APS said in a message to families yesterday (Thursday). They are not real APS communications, but they use the APS logo and may appear to come from the school system.
Arlington County police are urging residents to remain alert to a variety of commonly reported scams this holiday season.
Residents are encouraged to be suspicious of unsolicited communications, avoid clicking suspicious links and regularly monitor their bank accounts for unauthorized activity.
Phone-based scams are common — but just how common?
That’s what we’re wondering in today’s morning poll, following an article we published last week, which detailed a local woman’s experience getting targeted by a sophisticated phone scammer.
It started with a phone call. Somebody claiming to be her daughter alleged she was being held by the police after striking a pregnant woman. She herself had a broken nose, according to the caller whose caller ID claimed to be from Woodbridge.
“This person on the phone had the exact mannerisms that my daughter has,” the mother said. “She said my name the same way that she usually does. She apologized profusely like she normally would.”
The caller claimed that bail was set at $180,000, before passing the phone to a supposed police officer. Soon after, the mother received a call from a Texas phone number, from somebody claiming to be an attorney.
That’s when the red flags started getting raised.
The article is among the most-read on ARLnow over the past week, pointing perhaps to worries that a similar attempted scam could happen to almost anyone.
To find out how common it actually is, today we’re asking readers: have you ever been targeted by a phone scam?
Her daughter had been in a car accident, and the situation was much worse than a simple fender bender. At least, that’s what the mother was led to believe.
“All I knew is that she was potentially in a serious amount of trouble,” the mother said.
It’s an older phone scam, but it’s still active and is currently targeting Arlington residents.
The police department and the Sheriff’s Office are “warning the community about a common and reoccurring nationwide telephone scam currently circulating in Arlington.”
When Penrose resident Pete Giannino answered his doorbell one day this March, he was surprised to see his neighbors standing there, looking concerned.
“They said, ‘Hey, are you guys planning on renting your home?’ And I said, ‘No. Why do you ask?’ And they pointed out there was a listing on Zillow or Redfin for our home that we own,” Giannino told ARLnow.
Arlington County police are warning about some common scams that residents have been reporting.
The scams involve calls to victims from people impersonating law enforcement personnel, attorneys or even a victim’s family member. The goal is to induce fear and collect a payment over the phone.
Claiming a family member has been kidnapped and demanding a ransom. Threatening you with arrest if a fine is not paid for supposedly missing jury duty.
Those are just two of the most common scams perpetrated on local residents, according to the Arlington County Police Department.
More on the Weird Chime Sound — “Janae Bixby first heard the sound near Pentagon City, where I-395 and Glebe Road intersect, as she picked up her kid from daycare on Monday evening around 5. She described it as ‘some sort of clock or doorbell chime that you would hear — very digital.’ She assumed the noise was coming from the building and started heading home. But then, in her car ride home to the southern edge of the Del Ray neighborhood in Alexandria, she kept hearing it, again and again.” [DCist]
Parents Group Wants Smaller Class Sizes — “A group of parents in Arlington, Virginia, is urging the county’s board to allot additional funding to its school system in the next fiscal year’s budget. The group Arlington Parents for Education said in a letter to the board this week that more money should be provided so that class sizes can be smaller, teacher pay can be competitive with surrounding school districts and student mental health and learning loss can be addressed.” [WTOP]
Power Payment Scam — “Arlington County is warning the public about a phone scam of unsolicited calls claiming to be representatives of Dominion Energy. Dominion Energy will not call you to pressure you to pay. If you have issues, contact the customer service line (1-866-366-4357) immediately.” [Twitter]
Youngkin Voters Cite Schools — From WAMU’s Rachel Kurzius: “I cannot stress enough how much the issue of education has motivated Youngkin supporters. It comes up in every convo. Charmaine and Jack Yoest of Arlington say that ‘what’s going on in our schools today’ cuts across party lines and that helps explain Youngkin’s success tonight… One thing I keep hearing is that parents didn’t like what they overheard on Zoom classes.” [Twitter]
County Getting Paid for Glass Recycling — “Arlington’s glass recycling drop-off program continues to shatter expectations–surpassing 5 million pounds (2,500 tons) collected since its debut in 2019. And the effort is officially paying off. The County now receives $15 per ton for glass collected as the result of a new hauling and commodity contract with a Pennsylvania recycler.” [Arlington County]
VDOT’s Route 1 Proposal Bombs — “As a new vision for Crystal City’s portion of U.S. Route 1 comes into focus, local businesses, neighbors and the area’s dominant landlord are all becoming increasingly concerned… Renderings unveiled in a Virginia Department of Transportation meeting Wednesday night have united the National Landing Business Improvement District, JBG Smith Properties and some neighborhood activists in opposition over fears that the designs are still too car-centric.” [Washington Business Journal, Twitter]
