Police alert residents about scams

Police want to alert area residents about a sweepstakes scam targeting multiple citizens recently.

Legislator Frank Henderson and his wife Betty Ann, a Post Falls City Council member, were among the recent targets.

Betty Ann was contacted via telephone by a caller who informed her that she had won a sweepstakes raffle that she had never entered. He advised her that they were holding a large sum of money scheduled to be delivered to her.

The caller had a foreign accent and the phone call sounded distant. The male caller wanted to receive $150 as a transfer fee for the winnings he claimed Betty Ann Henderson had won. That money was to be wired by Western Union to a location he had yet to disclose.

"The phone call was made from a Washington state prefix, but is believed to have been routed from a foreign location," said Post Falls Police Detective Rod Gunderson, who investigated the case. "Obviously, the man had little knowledge of Washington state when questioned."

Gunderson said the scam often targets seniors.