Sheriff warns scammers stepping up efforts to swindle local residents

November 9, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

If you get a phone call supposedly coming from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office — think twice before giving out your financial information.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said someone is targeting would be victims with spoofed phone calls which means even though the caller ID may show otherwise, the calls are not coming from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

It’s a scam intended to coerce or threaten would be victims into sending money .

“I have had multiple calls today (Monday) from citizens who have been targeted. The scammers are using different scenarios trying to pull off their crimes and in many cases have been very rude and threatening to people,” said Sheriff Ray.

“In one case a citizen called me and said a Sheriff’s Department’s phone number called them and said they had a warrant on them for a court case. They even used a former deputy’s name. The caller told the victim not to hang up, not to tell anyone like her spouse and do not call the Sheriff’s Department. The caller wanted the victim to go get green dot cards at Walgreens to pay for the warrant. The victim and their spouse thought something didn’t sound right and called me,” said Sheriff Ray.

“Scammers are good at what they do. They research areas such as our county and spoof phone numbers of businesses and in this case the Sheriff’s Department’s number,” he continued.

“Do not go and get any cards that have money applied to them or give people who call you your bank card or credit card number. Once you give the scammer the card numbers, the scammer will take the cash which has been applied to them and collect the money into an overseas account. There is no way to get your money back. Most of the time these scammers are overseas where our laws mean nothing. The FBI has a difficult time working these types of cases,” Sheriff Ray said.

“If you get a call like this, please hang up immediately and call me at the jail. The number is 615-597-4935,” he said.

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