The Scott County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public about a phone scam involving someone posing as a Scott County deputy.
Investigators say someone claiming to be a deputy with the Scott County Sheriff’s Office has been calling people, claiming they have outstanding arrest warrants.
Sheriff Tony Hampton says their office never serves warrants over the phone.
“We do not conduct business like that. We would never conduct any kind of business like that over the phone. We do warrants in person,” Sheriff Hampton tells LEX 18.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
According to investigators, the scammer has been telling people to buy a prepaid debit card with a certain amount of money on it in order to settle the warrant.
Sheriff Hampton says this is a common scam tactic, but what makes it interesting is that the caller is using the name of a deputy who really does work at the sheriff’s office.
“Our scammer has done some research on, apparently, this sheriff’s office; that would be easy to do over the internet,” says Hampton. “If you call the number back and they don’t answer it actually rings in to our detention center, here. So, we’re investigating right now; trying to get to the bottom of it.”
One person has already lost three hundred dollars to the scam, and there could be other victims.
Investigators say the scammer is calling from a number with a “270” area code. Officials say regardless of where you live, no sheriff’s office will try to settle any kind of outstanding warrant over the phone.
“I think it would be very fair for me to speak for all the other 119 sheriff’s in this state, that, they don’t conduct business like that,” says Hampton.
