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Maricopa officials urge Sun City residents to hang up, verify and never pay with gift cards or crypto
Summary
Sheriff Jerry Sheridan, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and the MCSO financial-crimes team addressed Sun City residents about increasingly sophisticated frauds, urged reporting, and outlined five red flags and four high-risk payment methods to avoid.
Sheriff Jerry Sheridan, Maricopa County's top law-enforcement official, joined County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's financial-crimes unit at a Sun City community forum to warn residents about phone, text and AI-enabled scams targeting older adults.
The county officials said scams often rely on urgency or fear to prompt quick payments and identified common schemes and safeguards. "If you don't recognize the number calling you, hang up," Sheridan said, adding that scammers use increasingly realistic tactics, including synthetic voices produced with artificial intelligence. "If you don't recognize it, you're not expecting it — hang up. Delete the text. Don't even open it."
Mitchell, the Maricopa County Attorney, told the audience that scammers prey on people of all ages but often target older adults because attackers exploit…
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