{"id":165641,"date":"2026-04-14T18:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/165641\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:24:13","slug":"state-police-investigating-scam-impersonating-erie-otters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/165641\/","title":{"rendered":"State police investigating scam impersonating Erie Otters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pennsylvania State Police are investigating a reported fraud and identity theft scheme targeting a local business involving someone pretending to be from the Erie Otters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Scammers allegedly reached out to a Waterford business claiming to be a club employee, looking for vendors for the 2026-27 season, but they had to make a deposit to secure their spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/city-seeks-public-input-on-dispersal-of-4-million-in-federal-grants\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:City seeks public input on dispersal of $4 million in federal grants;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;City seeks public input on dispersal of $4 million in federal grants&quot;}\"> City seeks public input on dispersal of $4 million in federal grants <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police said while no money was lost, they\u2019re still advising local businesses and the public to stay aware of similar schemes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Law enforcement from around the area has also reported a rise in different scams, particularly impersonation scams, in the area where actors have pretended to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/erie-co-sheriff-warns-of-scam-callers-posing-as-courthouse-employees\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:court employees;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;court employees&quot;}\" class=\"link \">court employees<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/state-police-report-increase-of-phone-scams-in-nwpa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:regional police;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;regional police&quot;}\" class=\"link \">regional police<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/penndot-warning-residents-about-recent-scam-texts-impersonating-them-dmv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PennDOT;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;PennDOT&quot;}\" class=\"link \">PennDOT<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/warren-investigators-warn-of-walmart-impersonation-scam\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Walmart;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Walmart&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Walmart<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If you do get a scam call, police said to hang up immediately and to contact your local law enforcement agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania State Police are investigating a reported fraud and identity theft scheme targeting a local business involving someone&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,17019,4365,13931,1224,74607],"class_list":{"0":"post-165641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-erie","9":"tag-erie-headlines","10":"tag-erie-news","11":"tag-erie-otters","12":"tag-identity-theft","13":"tag-local-business","14":"tag-pennsylvania-state-police","15":"tag-regional-police"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}