Crime & Safety

Suspicious Message to Grosse Pointe Woods Man a Scam, Police Say

A message left on the answering machine of a Grosse Pointe Woods couple is believed to be an attempted scam in which the caller tries to elicit personal information to be used at a later time.

 police are investigating a suspicious call received by a resident Oct. 11 that officers believe to be related to some sort of criminal scam.

According to the report of the responding officer, a resident discovered a voicemail on her and her husband's answering machine from a woman identifying herself as being from the Food and Drug Administration. In the message, the woman says her organization intercepted a package that was to be delivered to the resident's husband and based on the contents, they had obtained a search warrant for his home and for his arrest.

In the message the woman asked the man to call her back as soon as possible. The resident called police because she said her husband is in the hospital recovering from surgery and thought the message to be suspicious.

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Her husband is an attorney downtown and she said she was unable to tell if the call came directly into their home line or from his work into their home line. When she tried to call the number, a message saying the "black jack line" she was trying to reach could not be connected.

Officers advised the woman to not answer the phone if additional calls from that same number came in and to allow the answering machine to pick it up. They also asked her to save the recording and told her they believed it was probably a scam in which the caller tries to elicit personal information that can later be used for criminal activity, according to a report.

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Sgt. Raymond Yonkowski said this particular call seems to have been isolated, noting such scams pop up every so often.


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