Say More in Raymore

Ring Ring, It's a Scam: Protect Yourself from Phone Scams

• City of Raymore, Missouri Government • Season 1 • Episode 9

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Winter brings fresh trout, fresh snow and—unfortunately—fresh scams. We kick off with seasonal updates for Raymore, from Johnston Lake being stocked with rainbow trout by the Missouri Department of Conservation to our community-named snow plows getting ready to roll. We also point you to our updated What’s Happening map at raymore.com/currentprojects so you can track development and infrastructure work anywhere in the city.

Then Police Chief Jim Wilson joins us to unpack the latest fraud trends hitting our area. The big red flags are clear: callers claiming you missed jury duty, threatening a warrant or demanding fines paid via gift cards or Bitcoin. We explain why legitimate agencies will never take money over the phone, how scammers use urgency to pressure you and what to do the moment a message feels off—hang up, verify with the official number and never share personal information. We talk about identity theft risks when victims give out details, what early steps to take to protect your credit and why reporting matters even if you feel embarrassed.

We round out with practical holiday safety tips: keep purses on your person, watch your cart, lock your car and hide valuables. Break down packaging so you don’t advertise new electronics at the curb. Stay aware in crowded stores and plan a sober ride if you’re celebrating, with DUI enforcement underway. It’s a simple playbook to keep your money, your data and your family safe while you enjoy everything our city has to offer this season.

If you found this helpful, follow the show, share it with a neighbor and leave a quick review so more Raymore residents can stay informed and safe.

Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Threads @CityofRaymoreMO

Melissa Harmer:

Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of Raymore's official podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Harmer, Communications Director for the City. In this final episode of 2025, we want to share a few things that might be helpful for our residents and for visitors to Raymore over the winter months. First, we have trout being stocked regularly at Johnston Lake at Hawk Ridge Park by the Missouri Department of Conservation. This program is stocking trout throughout the winter months in more than 40 cities or city lakes across the state. And in Raymore, if you catch a tagged trout, you can actually exchange that for a gift card at our Raymore Parks and Recreation Office at Centerview during normal business hours. Remember, you do need a Missouri fishing license if you are between the ages of 16 and 64, and you also need trout permits if you're going to keep the trout. Daily limit is four. And please make sure that you're also helping to keep our lake and park clean and avoid leaving litter behind. Hawk Ridge Park is located at 701 Johnston Parkway, and it includes a paved walking trail around the entire 12-acre lake, an accessible fishing dock, bridge, and jetty. You helped name our snow plows for the winter season. And while we hope that that winter weather stays away for a little while longer, I just wanted to share those names so that you can be on the lookout when they are hitting the streets in Raymore. So we've got Winter Warrior, Pushy McSnowface, Sir Plows a Lot, Snowbi Wan Kenobi, The Big Leplowski, Ice Ice Baby, No Mo Snow, Betty Whiteout, Snow Punisher, Pillsbury Plowboy, Salty Dog and Blade of Glory. So be on the lookout. All of our trucks do have those decals on them. So take a take a look when you see them drive by through town. Thank you all to everyone who participated in that contest. It's just uh makes it a little more fun. We also have a brand new updated What's Happening map on our website at Raymore.com slash current projects. We made it easy to stay up to date on new development activity, the status of these projects, public infrastructure projects, and more. So again, that's raymore.com slash currentprojects. Check it out and you can view the map and see what's happening near you. And finally, before we get to our guest, Chief Jim Wilson, I would love to know what other areas of the City of Raymore government are you interested in learning more about? Who do you want me to talk to? What topics would you like to hear more about? If you have an idea, questions, comments, please send them to me at communications at raymore.com. All right, now on to our guest. So we have had some recent fraud incidents in Raymore, and today we're talking to Police Chief Jim Wilson.

Chief Jim Wilson:

Good morning. Uh yeah, I'd like to share a little information. Recently, uh if if folks are paying attention to the the blotter, they will have seen some scam reports uh that we've taken. And this one of the most recent scam is folks pretending to be in law enforcement and either telephoning or texting uh victims and indicating that there's some sort of crisis. Though the ones now are the you missed the jury duty, so now there's a warrant for your arrest, and if you don't pay, we're going to come and arrest you. Um or some variants of that. And in those scams, it's typically, okay, well, I need you to go get bitcoins and go to a Bitcoin kiosk and put these things in, put the bitcoins in and transfer them to a certain account, and then there shortly after, those people disappear. Um, and then folks are out a significant amount of money, or uh the other one is typically similar details. We're with law enforcement, um, there's a fine. Here's a summons. You we have a summons for you, and you can pay the fine uh over the phone by going and getting some gift cards, whether it be a green duck card or Walmart gift card or whatever card, and then they have them scratch off part of the card and get the numbers, and then uh the victims are out a significant amount of money, and those folks disappear pretty quickly. And and that seems to be what's going on in not just our community, but in the region. Um they've been working, and folks have not got wise yet to the fact that nobody in law enforcement is gonna call you and tell you that you have a warrant for your arrest and then ask you to go and buy gift cards or go and get Bitcoin. They're not gonna do that. They're gonna tell you come to the police department and post a bond or what have you. They're not going to ask you over the phone for any kind of money or any kind of bond money, any kind of spine money, any kind of, they're not gonna ask you to pay a water bill, they're not gonna ask you to pay, you know, the list just keeps going on and on. You know, I slipped in there with the water bill, you know, that was one of the most recent, not the most recent, but before the the law enforcement uh scams, it was somebody in utilities, like water utility or billing calling somebody saying, hey, we're gonna shut off your water if you don't pay this amount of money over the phone right now. Um, and then there's still the scams of the folks that are pretending to be long distant family members needing bond money to bond out. But the two most prevalent going on right now in our area in our community are folks pretending to be in law enforcement and requesting uh Bitcoin or gift card money for a fictitious summons or traffic ticket or failing to go to a jury, being part of a jury, and uh or just the fact that you have a warrant. You know.

Melissa Harmer:

So if it's surprising and you know that you didn't do anything, you don't have an outstanding.. You shouldn't be paying yes.

Chief Jim Wilson:

Any question, if there's I mean the the jury deal, everybody gets summons to jury, you know. I at least I have two or three times. Um so you know, that's not unheard of, right? So it makes you go, oh, well, maybe I did get that. Well, you can always call the county in which they're saying this happened. And the only county in which you can go be a jury member in is one in which you live. Um so you call that county. For us, it's all going to be Cass County, and they can tell you, don't give out any personal information. And so in one of our recent cases, uh, unfortunately, a victim uh was give up their personal information. They didn't give up any kind of money, so they saved themselves there. But however, when you're giving up your personal identify identification information, that will lend to identity theft, and people open up accounts in your name, such as, you know, uh getting credit in your name, opening up credit cards, um, using your identify uh identification for fraudulent use. Um, and that is very hard to overcome as well.

Melissa Harmer:

Right. I think you have some personal experience with that on the same. I'm a victim of that many times. Yes, yes. Um, bottom line, first, just don't pick up the phone if you don't know the number. Yep. Number one, don't answer a text or ever click on a link on a text if you don't know the number.

Chief Jim Wilson:

And the other thing is you these people do this all day long, every day. So they're well greased up. They know what to say, they know how to pull you into it, make you make the story be even more believable. If I called you and I told you, well, I have a summons here and I give you a summons number, so now you're like, oh, they have a summons number, so this must be legit. No, no, that that doesn't mean it's legit. Nobody is, you know, no agency is going to call and ask you to pay stuff, uh a bill, a fine, uh bond over the telephone. They're just not going to do that. That's just not gonna be. No, we do not. And and quite frankly, you know, most of the uh if if there was a jury, uh, you know, warrant for you, I've never I've been doing this 37 years. I've never heard of anybody getting a warrant for their arrest for not appearing at a jury. So I think you get a letter and probably get uh in trouble with the judge, but sure. I don't I don't necessarily think that you would get a warrant for your arrest. So and again, it's you know, if you didn't get a summons in the mail that has summoned you to court to be a jury member, then there's no warrant for your arrest. Um I've went out and have done identity theft and fraud awareness type trainings and and had conversations with folks all over our community, but it continuously happens. And it's very concerning that folks are continuously being victims, so we need to do what we can to try to help. Um so if your listeners are are knowing of folks that that may need to uh report something, have them report because oftentimes folks they're embarrassed about being a victim. But you know, just maybe uh we might get lucky and something can connect them to another case where maybe this individual's local. The problem is, and more so than not, uh I would say these cases, these folks are nowhere near Raymoor, they're nowhere near Missouri.

Melissa Harmer:

Are they even in the United States?

Chief Jim Wilson:

Yeah, they very well may not even be in the U.S. Um So it's pretty hard to track some of these folks down. Unfortunately, the numbers that they use, the telephone numbers that you're they're calling from, or the text numbers that, you know, or so the text that are associated in telephone numbers, those are all not in good working order, you know, five minutes after the the deal's done. So folks need to remember that. And you know, especially with Christmas coming on, the holiday season is uh, you know, it seems to be picking up with the scams and all the fraud. I would caution our residents to make sure that, you know, after the holidays, they're they're going to be setting out all this trash, uh, boxes that show the, you know, I just got an 85-inch TV here for Christmas. We don't need to be announcing to folks traveling through our community what kind of uh items we have within our households. So I would encourage our community to make sure that they cut those boxes down.

Melissa Harmer:

So that is another thing that we need to be aware of this holiday season. Also, when you're out doing your shopping, just have some situational awareness around you.

Chief Jim Wilson:

You definitely need to have some situational awareness. I can't tell you how many times I see folks that are walking around the stores. We go in the stores all the time, especially during this time, we're doing spot visits and just trying to have a presence. I couldn't tell you, and this is nothing against women, but I see women all the time having their purse in their carts, and they're so busy either with children or looking, you know, watching out, trying to get down an aisle, or see something on the shelf that they want, and they're reaching over to get it and they're not paying attention to their cart. I I every year we take probably three or four reports where purses get stolen out of carts, so it's very important to keep an eye on that, as well as when you get back to the car. Once you take your stuff to the car, um you may start the car because of the cold weather. So that means the doors unlocked, you have the trunk open, while your purses in your car, or the man, men they often will put their phones or their wallets right in the center console or in plain view. Um pay attention to who's coming up to your car while you're putting groceries or putting uh goods into your vehicle because it only takes a split second. These folks do this stuff all the time. That's their primary job. And uh so just help us by knowing who's around you. Um if you're not in your car, lock your car and don't leave uh valuables in the open. Um I would encourage you uh to not do that. I I don't know, you could probably walk out in our parking lot right now, maybe see a few that that uh would be uh having some valuables and just laying on top of their console. So just be just be aware of that because you're just putting up a billboard for you know folks that are gonna come in and do bad things and steal from us. And if it's an opportunity, they're gonna do it. You know, it's a crime of opportunity. They're gonna see a purse or a wallet sitting uh in the front seat and you're not paying attention and you're got your head in your trunk trying to arrange things, um, they're gonna reach in and take that stuff. So please be aware of who's around you.

Melissa Harmer:

Right. And I think you just endorsed crossbody purses. So the ones you can keep on you all the time really easily. Yep. Um just at least so that you can keep your things close to you when you're out and about. Because you never know, you never know who's around.

Chief Jim Wilson:

No, who's watching. You never know who's around, especially during the holidays. You want to be on high alert now for sure. You know, and it's crowded at the stores. You know, this week I I went out with my wife this weekend. We went shopping as well. It was pretty crowded at different locations. Next week, it's gonna be even worse.

Melissa Harmer:

For all the people that left it for the last minute, like me.

Chief Jim Wilson:

Uh and me. I said we went last week, but I'll be going again next week.

Melissa Harmer:

You couldn't get her gifts when you were with her. No, nope.

Chief Jim Wilson:

I have to wait until I tell afterwards.

Melissa Harmer:

So Okay, so just to review law enforcement's never going to threaten to arrest you if you do not immediately pay them anything over the phone or gift cards or Bitcoin. That's never going to happen.

Chief Jim Wilson:

That's never gonna happen. And if that that's never going to happen, and if you do get a call as such, please contact the law enforcement agency, preferably us. I mean, you're listening to us, so it's probably Raymore. But if you're in rural Raymore, you're gonna want to contact the Cass County Sheriff's Office. And if you're on the line over into Belton, you'll want to contact Belton. But everybody, please be aware that if they get these, we need to be uh made aware of it and please report it.

Melissa Harmer:

And do not feel embarrassed to call if you if even if it's if it's already started, like help help Raymore PD help you stop it as soon as possible with the resources that they have if that's possible. If you are not sure if something is a scam or legitimate, don't hesitate to contact Raymore Police. Yeah, that's we're just a phone call away.

Chief Jim Wilson:

Yeah, we're just a phone call away. Absolutely. I mean, I think that I would rather you call us and ask us, as opposed to, you know, waiting, you know, down the road and you become a victim. I mean, still call us if you become a victim, but we would rather end this before you do become a victim.

Melissa Harmer:

Exactly. And yes, always happy to help answer questions. If it turns out to be nothing, fine, no harm done. You just want to be sure and you want to know for sure that you're whether someone's trying to scam you or not.

Chief Jim Wilson:

Right. And these people just remember, these people do this all the time, so they're very, very well versed on how to trick you.

Melissa Harmer:

Right.

Chief Jim Wilson:

So if anybody's calling you and asking you to pay for something that that you didn't you weren't a part of and you know nothing about, the chances are it's probably a scam.

Melissa Harmer:

Got it. Anything else you want to leave us with?

Chief Jim Wilson:

No, I I think that uh just be safe this holiday uh season. By the way, we're gonna be out in force doing uh alcohol enforcement uh coming up this weekend. And uh yeah, I want everybody to be safe, be responsible if you're having a few drinks, make sure you have a ride, call somebody, watch your surroundings when you're at the stores, and then don't leave any valuables in your car.

Melissa Harmer:

All right, got it. Thank you so much, Chief Wilson.

Chief Jim Wilson:

Thank you.

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Melissa Harmer

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