Don’t be so trusting, Police Chief Victor Mangiacapra warns Corraleños.
The village’s weekly crime and safety update offers a pair of cautionary tales. On April 22, a Corrales Society of Artists official reported receiving an email three weeks earlier, purportedly from the organization’s president. The message instructed him to pay invoices via an online app, which he did. The official later discovered that the email had come from outside the Artists’ Society.
Mangiacapra told the Corrales Comment the scammer bilked the organization out of more than $8,000 in two transactions. He said con artists typically try to create a sense of urgency in their targets. “The key is to try to slow the momentum down,” he said, urging anyone who gets a questionable directive to verify it by contacting the relevant person through a known telephone number. “If that step had been taken, the fraud would never have happened,” Mangiacapra said.
Scammers are usually out of state, or possibly in another country, he said. Victims should report scams to the FBI, through its Internet Crime Complaint Center. Mangiacapra said the FBI has more investigative resources than a local police agency would.
In another incident, a Corrales resident reported that items were stolen from his home and he suspected his cleaning lady. Mangiacapra said residents should investigate anyone who might be hired to work in their homes, ensuring they’re properly licensed and insured. “We can’t stress enough how important it is to secure small valuable items,” he said. “There’s no reason to leave them out and provide that temptation.”