AG: New phone scam in Arizona targets previous fraud victims

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is warning Arizonans about a new phone scam where callers posing as representatives of his office are bilking previous victims of consumer fraud.

"These crooks have stooped to a new low by re-victimizing some of our most vulnerable consumers," Brnovich said in a prepared statement. "Our office will never contact victims of consumer fraud and ask them for money."

It is not unusual for scammers to trade a victim's contact information with other scammers, said Mia Garcia, a Brnovich spokeswoman. When you get scammed once, it's very likely that more telemarketers will continue to call and try to do it again, she said.

Investigators with the AG's Office learned about the scam through a complaint-line tip.

Garcia said scammers know the victim's name and how much money the victim lost in a previous scam. Through letters and phone calls, victims are told they are eligible to get their money back but must first make a payment of a few hundred dollars.

Garcia said the scammers claim to be a "legal aide" employed by the Arizona Attorney General's Office tasked with contacting consumers to help them get their money back.

It's a new twist on an advanced-fee scheme in which consumers provide money up front in order to receive something greater in return, which never materializes, Garcia said.

The scheme is similar to Internal Revenue Service phone-call scams in which the caller claims to be an IRS representative. According to the IRS website, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has received 736,000 reports of such scams since October 2013, and victims have collectively paid more than $23 million as a result.

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The AG's Office offers these tips to avoid telemarketing scams:

• The Attorney General's Office will never ask consumers to make a payment for services provided
• Consumers should be cautious about paying in advance for services. Pay for services only after they are delivered.
• If you get a call from someone claiming to be from or affiliated with the Attorney General's Office and they ask for money or financial information, contact the AG's Office to verify at 602-542-5025 or 520-628-6504.