Scammers targeting neighborhood watch groups in Salinas

Retired Salinas resident Pamela Meeks was intrigued when she received an email concerning new information about sex offenders in her neighborhood.

“I was playing around on my iPad and I noticed an alert. It was a neighborhood alarm alert, which I clicked onto,” said Meeks.

A grandmother of four, she was interested to click further. She began to fill out all the necessary information like her name, where she lives, but then the email asked for her credit card information.

“Whenever anything asks for my credit card I do not click on that. It’s kind of an alarm to me,” said Meeks.

An alarm to a possible scam. Authorities with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said they’re not surprised scammers are targeting neighborhood watch groups, as they tend to prey on people’s fears.

Cmdr. John Thornburg said, “Scammers will pick any group that they think they can either make an emotional contact with or something that somebody feels strongly about.”

Meeks is also a member of the Monterey Park Neighborhood Watch group. Salinas resident Julie Foucht founded the group, and was alarmed when she heard about the email pretending to be from a neighborhood watch group.

“My first thought was that’s really unfortunate,” said Foucht. “The scammers are really becoming aware of how valuable the neighborhood watches are to people.”

In this case, they chose to prey on every parent’s worst fear – child predators. But residents like Pamela Meeks want this to be a lesson to others to not be fooled.

If you do get a scam email, authorities urge that you don’t click on the link or respond. But save it so you can hand it over to your local law enforcement agency.