‘Not on our watch’: SCPD blasts potential scammer on Facebook

(KRON) – The Santa Clara Police Department brought awareness to a romance scheme after a potential scammer attempted to scam someone in the department’s Facebook comments.

On Sunday, Santa Clara PD shared a screenshot of a man who wrote to someone commenting on the department’s page. 

The potential scammer said, “I always enjoy what you share here on Facebook, but we’re not friends yet.” He went on it to inform the potential victim that he had requested to be their social media acquaintance multiple times and that he would like someone to “share moments of laughter and good ideas with.”

SCPD responded to this post, calling the message “sketchy,” and also said, “This is a scam free zone. Nice try, but not on our page, and definitely not on our watch.” 

The department said the scammer is likely to reply to a comment and spark a conversation about how they stumbled across the victim’s page. A likely statement the scammer would make is that they cannot add the victim as a Facebook friend, and the victim has to send them a request.

Santa Clara PD said on its social media, “This isn’t a Hallmark movie. It’s more than likely a scam using a fake profile picture. And it’s typically how love scams begin. He’s not looking for companionship. He’s looking for someone to fall for a fake story, click a link, or hand over personal info. Maybe even money. Definitely not love.”