Chattooga County Sheriff Mark Schrader is serious about keeping scam artists out of the bank accounts of Chattooga County's senior citizens.  It is almost a daily occurrence, a telephone or internet scam artist contacts one of Chattooga County's senior citizens and tries to steal their hard earned money.

Sheriff Schrader spoke with AM 1180 recently and said that if someone contacts you and says that you have "won" a sweepstakes or other prize but first you must send money – it is a scam and do not fall for it.  Also, if the telephone or internet scam artist asks for personal information such as bank account or social security numbers – do not give them the information.  Schrader says that Chattooga County residents, many of them senior citizens, have been cheated out of thousands of dollars by these scam artists, and more often than not these thieves are based overseas and can not be tracked down and prosecution is difficult.

Last week Sheriff Schrader and Chief Deputy Kevin Woods spoke with a group of senior citizens at Subligna Baptist Church and shared valuable information on how to avoid falling victim to scams.  The sheriff said that they would be willing to address any senior citizen church group, or other senior organization in the county.  For more information contact the Chattooga County Sheriff's Department.

AM 1180 will have a Newsmakers Interview with Sheriff Shcrader coming up on Monday morning following the 8 AM newscast and again following the Trading Post program in the noon hour.  We will post the interview to our blog after it has aired on the radio so that you can listen at your own convenience.