Beware of Suspicious Private Phone Numbers

An elderly Barrington woman may have been the target of a scam last Thursday, Nov. 14, involving a purported UPS delivery and several phone calls from a private number. 

Barrington Police Chief John LaCross said the calls came from phone number 401-280-1507. LaCross said the police department has “investigated several phone scams in recent weeks involving local (401 area code) phone numbers.”

Police received a report at around 1:10 pm from the daughter of the woman, who lives in Massasoit Avenue. She said her mother, 90, had received two suspicious calls.

LaCross said the woman’s daughter visits her often. When there, she screens her mother’s calls. 

The daughter said she received a call from a female who told her she was with UPS and wanted to schedule a delivery that day at about 4 pm. She wanted to make sure someone was at home and would call back to confirm the delivery, LaCross said.

About five minutes later, a male with an accent she believed to be African called from a private number to tell her he had a certified check to deliver and needed confirmation she would be home around 4 pm, the police chief said. 

“The daughter became suspicious and hung up the phone," he said. "She received several more calls from a private number but did not answer them.”

The police chief said UPS was contacted. The company confirmed there were no scheduled deliveries for Massasoit Avenue and the driver of that route had already finished for the day.

At that point, a patrol officer returned to the home just before 4 pm and “posted the area but no one came to the house,” LaCross said.

Research done on the number used by the woman who initially called the Massasoit Avenue home found that it belongs to Ymax Communications Corp., owners of MagicJack, a portable device that allows people from out of the country to make phone calls over the Internet using a local phone number.

“The company has been the source of numerous complaints in several states,” said LaCross.