Tulsa police are warning people to beware of scammers as the holiday season approaches. Lt. Andrew Weeden spoke Wednesday with residents at James M. Inhofe Plaza — an apartment community for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
Scammers are always at work, Weeden said, but during the holidays they are looking for people who are distracted or lonely. During the event, co-hosted by JPMorganChase, Wheeler said people should be especially vigilant for perpetrators looking to hack their accounts.
“That’s when people are receiving phone calls just out of the blue,” he said. “You’d be surprised at the victims who will verify for these imposters their account numbers and their passwords. The victims think that it’s actually somebody from Amazon because they have their number, address, name.”
If you receive a text from someone posing as Amazon or another company with an update on your order, don’t fall for it. Most major companies don’t call or text customers.
“The scammers will try to get you to pay extra money and say, ‘We’ll get it sorted out, and we’ll get it shipped directly to you overnight,’” Weeden said. “They should ignore these calls. Hang up and call the true source.”
Scams aren’t limited to online purchases. Sheila Firquain, who lives at the plaza, said she’s been the victim of a food stamp swipe, but has no idea how it happened. Now, Firquain is more cautious about answering her phone.
“I get scammers calling me like 30 times a day. All I do is block and delete,” she said. “If it’s a doctor’s office or something, they can leave me a message, then I’ll call back.”
Another popular tactic police are seeing is romantic scams, Weeden said.
“They may use AI to make everything look more realistic,” he said. “Now, (the victims) are falling in love, but they’re literally developing relationships with fake people. Then ultimately that relationship is going to start turning at some point. It always involves money.”
Weeden encouraged all victims of a financial crime to make a police report.
Nearly 20,000 Oklahomans were scammed out of $75.3 million in 2024. Through the first half of 2025, more than 11,000 Oklahomans reported fraud and collective losses of $50.5 million.
