Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Warniong About New Phone Scam

The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office issued an advisory concerning a telephone scam.

Sheriff Rich Haskell said his office has received reports of individuals calling Sweetwater County numbers and identifying themselves as officers of the “United States Crime Bureau,” or the “Sheriff County Code.” The caller claims an arrest warrant or summons has been issued for the person called, who must pay to clear the matter up and/or provide bank account and Social Security number information.

“These calls are swindles and the organizations they claim to represent are bogus,” Haskell said. “This particular scam surfaces from time to time in different parts of the country. The callers often threaten arrest if the potential victim does not pay up.”

People who have received the calls report that the callers have strong accents. In instances in other states, the callers have often become verbally abusive when people refuse to cooperate.

“As crude as this scam is, people have been successfully victimized elsewhere in the country,” said Haskell. “We don’t want that to happen here. You should not give out personal information or bank account information of any kind to a strange caller, nor should money be sent to anyone to mitigate an alleged ‘arrest warrant.’ We recommend that anyone who receives such calls make a note of caller’s number, if it’s available, then simply hang up and contact law enforcement.”

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