SCAM ALERT IN OHIO!

The City of St. Clairsville Police Department is urging all citizens to stay vigilant as a new type of scam is expected to make its way into Ohio. “Brushing” package scams involve the delivery of unordered items to your home, disguised as packages from Amazon or other companies.

If any citizen sees a package that they did not order and it has a QR code (see image), DO NOT SCAN THIS WITH YOUR PHONE!!! The item delivered can be kept or thrown away, but DO NOT SCAN ANY CODE!!!! Once you scan the package’s QR code, it exposes your phone’s personal information—including banking and financial details—which then gives scammers access to all the contents in your device.

How to avoid brushing scams

The FBI provided tips on how to protect yourself against the brushing package scams:

• Do not scan a randomly found QR code
• Be suspicious if, after scanning a QR code, the site asks for a password or login info
• Do not scan QR codes received in emails or text messages unless you know they are legitimate. Call the sender to confirm
• Some scammers are physically pasting bogus codes over legitimate ones. If it looks as though a code has been tampered with, don’t use it

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION OR CALL OUR LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT 740-365-0123

https://www.timesreporter.com/story/news/2024/09/26/brushing-package-scams-fake-qr-codes-ohio-how-to-avoid-them/75376871007/