State police at Frackville are warning area residents of an increase in phone scams occurring in the area.

Two separate occurrences of residents being solicited for a security payment for a prize won or claiming to be from various law enforcement agencies looking for payment of a debt or to avoid arrest have been reported. In one incident, a loss of $800 was reported.Unsolicited telephone calls looking for monies to be sent either by wire such as Western Union or through transfer of gift card numbers, or those looking for confidential information such as Social Security number, credit card number, bank account numbers, etc., should be ignored, troopers warn.Additionally, calls originating from the "876" area code are from Jamaica and are predominantly connected with lottery schemes. Other telephone numbers, if checked through publicly available databases such as whitepages.com will be associated with cellphones.Troopers said another scam is a caller requesting bail to be forwarded to avoid having a loved one jailed, particularly in a foreign country, and with instructions not to report the call to the subject's immediate family. Older people are most often targeted as the caller claims to be acting on behalf of a grandchild, with the grandchild's parents unaware that their child is out of the country.Troopers said area codes involved are: 202, 467, 702, 845, 876, and 888.