BOWMAN, N.D. — The Bowman City Commission held a regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 4, where the Bowman Police Department warned local residents about a scam.
Chief of Police Charles Headley presented his activity report to the commission, which detailed an incident where an officer stopped a driver after they sped through a 25 mph zone at 40 mph. The officer found eight items of controlled substances and items of drug paraphernalia in the car. Issued citations for the narcotics, both the driver and passenger from Minnesota are to appear in court in August.
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There were a total of 39 calls for service mentioned in Headley’s report, including eight calls in the category of “scam, swindle and confidence game.” Headley warned the commission about a scam that he’s gotten calls from people in western North Dakota and even eastern Montana.
According to Headley, the scam has involved men having contact with a girl named Penelope on a dating site. After the men exchange phone numbers and pictures with Penelope, the girl who supposedly lives in Bowman tells them that she’s underage. The men, who decide to cut off any involvement with Penelope, then receive a call from a person pretending to be Officer Michael Snow. The impersonator tells the victims of the scam that Penelope is in the hospital following a suicide attempt and her family is willing to forego pressing charges in exchange for paying part of the hospital cost.
“Some of them, out of guilt, would Venmo money to the number supplied to our gentlemen and essentially they’re out of money,” Headley said. “We thought it was going to be a short-lived thing, but last night we took four reports.”
“Furthest was Richardton to parts of eastern Montana,” he continued. “Dickinson seems to be a real target audience for this scam. We thought it would die off, but it hasn’t.”
Headley said that he called the number of the person impersonating Snow, but the call went to the scammer’s voicemail. He predicts that finding the individuals behind the scam could be difficult since they may be operating overseas or using a burner phone.
“If you hear any rumors around, we don’t conduct business like that,” Headley said. “If we’ve got an investigation, we don’t conduct investigations over the phone—we work with other law enforcement agencies.”
“But in the event you hear something, it’s not our Michael Snow,” he added.
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During a regular meeting in June, the commission addressed a cyberattack that encrypted every file that the Bowman Parks & Recreation encrypted. Close to the end of the meeting on Aug. 4, the commission voted to approve their cybersecurity agreement.
The commission had reviewed information on cybersecurity from their own IT personnel during a meeting in July. In favor of an alternative plan, the commission agreed to inform Dan Peterson, the director of the Bowman Parks & Recreation, that they won’t be joining in the proposed contract with CyberNet Security.