Selma resident Lucy Duncan knows she isn’t the first person to receive a call from someone claiming to work with Publisher’s Clearing House notifying her she’s won a large prize, but by speaking up, Duncan hopes she can remind others to not fall for the trick when they get the same call.

“It scares me because I’m afraid a lot of elderly people are going to believe them when they call,” Duncan said.

Saying she received two of the scams call over the last month, Duncan said each call was made by a different caller and that both asked her for personal information.

“The first time it was an old lady, and then the second time it was an elderly gentleman,” Duncan said. “When the lady called, she wanted my address and Social Security number, and I just told her no. I knew she wasn’t from Publisher’s Clearing House. And I told the guy he should call somebody that would believe him.”

Detective Ray Blanks, with the Selma Police Department, said Duncan’s experience isn’t all that rare and asks community members to stay vigilant.

“We also had a scam where people are calling in claiming to be from local companies and ask for this same information,” Blanks said. “But Alabama Power, one of the companies that has been used, would never call you and ask for this information. The major utility companies will not call you and ask for this information, because they already have it.”

Blanks said anyone receiving similar calls should listen to their intuition if it sounds too good to be true.

“If it sounds to good to be true, 99 times out of 100, it just isn’t true,” Blanks said. “And when people call and ask for names, date of birth, Social Security numbers and stuff like that, just don’t ever give it to them.”

Blanks asks anyone who receives scam calls to alert the police in order to help them investigate the situation.

“We ask that people write down the number and bring it in to the police department,” Blanks said. “I am currently looking into a lot of scams similar to this.”