Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

An old scam has apparently made a comeback here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. A few folks who have placed ads in the Times Leader have alerted us they’ve received calls from someone claiming to be from the newspaper’s classified advertising department, trying to get their credit card information.

Bernie Hurley, of Kingston, had placed an ad to sell a camper when he got a call from a number marked “private.”

“It was a guy trying to say we didn’t pay for the ad and we had to pay again,” said Hurley. “But I had a receipt.”

Hurley, who hung up on the fraudster, said the camper sold in two days, “so it worked out really well.”

“I pick up on scams pretty well,” he said. “I can usually figure out when somebody is not on the up and up.”

This scam is nothing new; there are warnings online going as far back as 2010. So if you are placing an ad, beware of phone calls attempting to gain your information. In fact, be suspicious of any caller claiming to be from a business where you have used your credit card, asking you to “give us that number again.” Instead, tell the caller you will telephone the business at its publicly listed number to provide the information.

Speaking of scammers, plumber Joe Sekelsky, of Duryea, who faces seven criminal charges for allegedly ripping off customers and a supplier for thousands of dollars, had a couple of court dates last week. Police in Pittston City and Wilkes-Barre Township separately filed charges against the 50-year-old owner of Sekelsky Plumbing and Heating earlier this month.

Sekelsky’s preliminary hearing scheduled for last Wednesday for two felony theft charges, two other felonies involving lying to get money and a misdemeanor bad-check charge was postponed until Aug. 10 by Magisterial District Judge Alexandra Kokura-Kravitz. Sekelsky remains free on $15,000 unsecured bail, meaning he didn’t have to put up any money or property.

Sekelsky did show up for a preliminary arraignment last Tuesday on two felony charges filed by Wilkes-Barre Township police after Marcy Smith reported she paid him almost $5,000 for a heating and air conditioning system he never installed.

Smith was caring for her terminally ill mother when Sekelsky came to check a leak and told her the central air conditioning unit was shot. Not only did Sekelsky never install a new unit, Smith later learned there was nothing wrong with the old one, and she could have turned on the air conditioning during an intense heat wave while her mother was sick.

“My mother’s bedroom faced the east with large windows that act like a greenhouse,” recalled Smith. “She was spiking temperatures of 102 and drenching her sheets with sweat. When I look back now and realize that the air conditioning unit wasn’t even dysfunctional and could have been on, I become angry with him. Not only did he steal my money, he left my sick mother uncomfortable in a hot and humid home.”

Smith was in the courtroom Tuesday morning.

“I sat in front of him so he was forced to look at me,” she said. “He looked so nervous and he mouthed to me, ‘I’m sorry.’ I thought, if you’re sorry, give me back my money and everybody else you owe.”

Sekelsky, who also remains free on $15,000 unsecured bail for the Wilkes-Barre Township charges, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 20.

Christine Young
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_Christine-Young.jpg.optimal.jpgChristine Young

Reach Times Leader Consumer Watchdog Christine Young at [email protected].