QUEENS — Residents need to make an extra effort to protect their identity and property as grand larcenies have skyrocketed in Forest Hills and Rego Park in recent weeks, police officials said.
The number of grand larcenies in the 112th Precinct jumped more than 72 percent, with 31 incidents in the 28-day period ending April 9 compared to 18 during the same period a year ago, according to statistics provided by the NYPD.
Overall crime in the precinct went up more than 46 percent during the same time period.
“Grand larceny fuels our crime, they are [the] No. 1 crime in the 112th Precinct,” said Deputy Inspector Robert Ramos, the precinct’s commanding officer, at a community council meeting Wednesday night.
Ramos said identity theft makes up most of grand larceny incidents, including scammers opening bank accounts and paying taxes using victims' names.
Scammers are "still working hard to get people’s identities,” Ramos said. “We had one [incident] two weeks ago, [where] an individual went to get his taxes done and unknown to him, his taxes had already been done by somebody else.”
Several residents also received phone calls from people claiming they work for the IRS, police officials said.
“If you get a phone call and someone says they are from the IRS, just hang up the phone, they are not from the IRS," he said. "The IRS will send you a letter in the mail."
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Scammers often claim that victims' family members or friends have been kidnapped or are in jail, officials said.
“Last year, a man ended up losing $20,000," Ramos said. "Then he called his nephew and the nephew said: "I’m home, everything is OK.”
Ramos said people who receive such phone calls should hang up and call their relatives instead.
“The longer you stay on the phone with these people the more you are going to buy into them and you might think: 'Maybe this is a legitimate phone call,'” he said.
Local police officials also warned residents to be vigilant while using ATM machines where scammers sometimes install skimming devices that collect data from people’s credit and debit cards.
Recently such a device was discovered at a local branch of Astoria Bank, police said.
