Chief updates on new station, warns of scams

Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck said the OPD has secured enough private and grant funding to complete the new police station at the former Ranger College building, and move in before a March 1 deadline.

Chief Birbeck informed the City Council at its Jan. 13 meeting that grant funding had been approved to complete building and IT requirements that pass the Texas Police Chiefs Association Best Practices.

Chief Birbeck also warned the public to be aware of an email scam that some residents have reported in recent weeks.

The scammers create what appear to be personalized emails threatening to expose embarrassing personal information to the target’s contact list unless the person pays them.

“They do a little research on you and get some personal information - off Facebook or have an account with publicdata.com,” Chief Birbeck said.

“If you’ve ever been arrested, they will see that. It’s just enough information to try to confirm to the person that they are sending the email that they know more about them than they really do.” The top of the email may contain the target’s name, address and details about their lives, he said.

“That’s the hook. They need to convince them that they have more information on them than they really do. And then they tell them that they have installed malware that allows them to turn on their computer’s camera and they have been monitoring their internet activity.

The scammers could falsely tell the target that they have been monitoring their internet usage and have noticed that “you visited some web sites that are pornographic or something like that,” he said.

“They basically say, ... we have video of you doing certain things to yourself or different things in front of your computer that you wouldn’t want me sending to your contact list because I have all that too,” he said.

“It’s a scare tactic. They say, ‘If you want to settle this, I will delete all these files and I will go away if you send me $2,000 or $3,000’ sometimes in Bitcoin.”

Chief Birbeck urged residents to check their computers for malware or spyware by disconnecting them from the internet and taking them to an IT professional if they receive such an email.

He also warned residents not to pay them. “Don’t even reply to it, just delete it is the best option,” he said. “Most of these things are coming from overseas and once you send the money there is no chance of us getting it back or prosecuting them.”