The new year is barely underway, but some things never–including criminals and con artists–don’t turn over a new leaf, but in many cases, just find new ways to try and scam unsuspecting people out of their hard earned money.

Such has been the case already this year, including here in Clinton County, as well as other nearby area swith law enforcement reporting different types of phone scams in recent weeks.

Last week, the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office went to social media site Facebook to warn residents of a phone scam that indirectly named its own office.

The sheriff’s office posted that, “Apparently there is another scam in our area. We have had numerous calls through (last) week of people claiming they had received a call from our office from someone claiming to be Deputy Jones.

“Scammers are calling people using our office number and saying they have documentation that needs to be paid. The scammers attempt to collect the money over the phone.

Please do not give out personal information to these people. The sheriff’s office will never call anyone to ask for money and we do not have a Deputy Jones employed here. Documents from our office are never served with us asking for money.”

The post goes on to ask people to “share” this information with people who are not on Facebook.

A different type of scam involving debit cards was reported recently in neighboring Wayne County, according to an article published in the January 18 edition of The Outlook.

The article read that Wayne County Sheriff Tim Catron has received several reports from local citizens there in regard to their debit and credit card accounts being hacked and used.

Catron issued a reminder to all local residents to pay close attention every time they use a debit or credit instrument or an ATM machine to make sure there is not a scanning device attached to it.

It if does not look normal, then it probably is not and should be reported to the business and to the sheriff’s office immediately.

Catron also reminded people to check their bank and credit card statements each month and to conduct a credit report regularly for any discrepancies.

Yet another scam in the region was issued last week by Kentucky State Police Post 11 in London.

In a press release last Friday, January 20, it said KSP in London had received several reports of a scam/fraud that targets victims by phone.

The release said, “Victims are reporting that they were contacted by an automated call from Cumberland Valley National Bank advising that their credit card had been locked. The automated call advised the victims in order to unlock the credit card they had to enter their credit card number and social security number. All the victims are reporting that the phone call came from the same number (1-844-201-8954).

Kentucky State Police Post 11 advised the public not to answer any phone calls from that number and to remember several basic guidelines in regards to their personal information.

Never give personal information out over the phone or internet unless you have initiated contact and know who you are speaking to.

Immediately call or visit your bank to report suspicious activity on your account that appears concerning or questionable.

If you are a victim of this type of scam you should contact a law enforcement agency and your banking institution.