It appears scam artists are going out of their way to make it easier for you to get ripped off – they are now giving you options on how to send them the money they’re attempting to steal from you!

WEIS Radio News spoke with Officer Jeff Bryant of the Centre Police Department regarding the latest scam to hit the area – actually, it’s an old con game with a slightly different twist.

A Cherokee County resident was contacted by phone by someone telling her she’d won $5,000 – and all she had to do was send THEM a $250 “processing fee”; after they received the money the $5,000 cash would be sent to her via Fed-X.

The woman who answered the phone immediately knew what was going on, and she told them to go ahead and send her the five grand and she’d be sure to send their $250 to them later. Needless to say, they wouldn’t agree to that.

The caller persisted – telling the woman that she could go to Wal-Mart, and purchase one of their  “Green Dot” cards in the amount of $250, and simply give them the number so they could “begin processing her prize” claim.

She hung up.  Then called police.

They later called back and suggested she go to a Western Union location and wire $250 to them.

What they didn’t know was they’d called back when Officer Bryant was taking a report from the woman – and when he got on the phone, they didn’t want to talk anymore.

Of course the entire thing was merely another attempt to con someone out of money for a prize – in this case, $5,000 cash – which did not exist.

Remember – never ever give out your personal private information to anyone you don’t know for any reason – over the phone, through e-mail or via text message.

Once they have your social security number, account number or other sensitive information it’s a simple matter for them to clean out your bank account and run up thousands of dollars in debt, in the blink of an eye.

And certainly don’t give anyone attempting to pull a stunt like this money through a “Green Dot” card or via Western Union.

As the old saying goes “If it sounds too good to be true – it usually is”.