By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

With reports of both phone scams and unapproved solicitors canvassing the county and neighboring areas, residents are looking for ways to make sure they stay safe if that situation arises.

Livingston County Sheriff Tony Childress said he suggests never doing business over the phone, which includes giving credit card and other personal information. He also said he tells people to just not deal with door to door salespeople at all.

“Just be cognizant of your surroundings. If you have suspicious people, by nature, coming to your door, you need to be calling the police because you don’t know if that person is there to try and cause you to become a victim of fraud or maybe cause you to become a victim of burglary later. We need to know about these individuals and we need to be able to respond to your location if you have them at your door, so we can get them identified and know who they are, and possibly stop any crime that is about to be committed,” Childress said.