With the growing trend of fraudulent phone calls happening across the nation, the Coupeville Marshal’s Office is taking a proactive approach to better educate local residents.

While Marshal Rick Norrie said Coupeville isn’t a hotbed for fraudulent phone crime, incidents have happened.

Many phone scams come from other states and even other countries and can be very difficult and costly to investigate and prosecute, he said. The best thing to combat the issue is to educate the public.

The marshal’s office has already made an education presentation to the Coupeville HUB and Norrie said his office is willing to hold presentations for anyone interested.

Because of generational differences, fraudulent phone calls seem to target the senior population.

“We all think differently,” Norrie said. “Those type of people are forgiving, trusting and caring people.”

Examples of fraudulent phone calls include calls from companies requiring personal information because of billing issues, calls announcing the person has won a large amount of money but must send a smaller amount first and even calls claiming to be a relative needing money.

“They’re looking for that trigger for emotion,” Norrie said. “Once they get through the door and it flows.”

There’s also been an increase in phone scams where the caller appears to be from a government agency threatening a fine.

“It’s amazing the number of people being taken advantage of,” Norrie said.

He even investigated a case recently in which a resident received a call from a person demanding the resident bring money to a person waiting in Oak Harbor.

The call was traced back to a number in Canada and Norrie said he believed multiple people were involved in this scam.

“It’s a constant battle,” he said last Thursday. “Just today I had a fraudulent call about insurance.”

It’s important to be aware of your surroundings and there are things one can do to protect themselves at home, but many, especially in an older generation, don’t think about protecting themselves online.

“Crime can happen anywhere, anytime,” Norrie said. “Senior citizens online need to be aware of what they put online.

“Be careful what you post and only enter personal info on sites that are safety secured.”

When receiving a questionable phone call, citizens can do a number of things to vet the caller.

The first is to figure out where the number is from.

Norrie suggests asking a lot of questions to see how forthcoming the caller is.

Also try asking for a callback number and saying you can’t provide the information at that moment.

If the caller is legitimate they will have no problem providing information, Norrie said. “It’s OK to say no.”

Norrie is in the process of finding additional information to help him better educate the public. He is also currently working on creating resources for distribution.

“As a community, we need to come together and help each other,” he said.

Anyone interested in further educating themselves on fraudulent phone calls can call the Coupeville Marshal’s Office at 360-678-4461.