Clay County Sheriff's Scam Warnings

Clay County -- April 17, 2023: Phone and online scams are fraudulent activities that have become increasingly
common in the digital age.

Scammers use a variety of techniques to trick people into giving them money or personal information.
These scams can happen over the phone or online, and they can be perpetrated by individuals or organized groups.

The Clay County Sheriff's Office published a Public Announcement Thursday April 13, 2023 about elderly scams:

Public Service Announcement

On todays date an attempt was made to scam an elderly Clay County Citizen out of several thousand dollars.
The perpetrators utilized a ruse in which they will call the target (usually elderly) and identify themselves to be law enforcement. They will then tell the citizen that their loved one has been arrested and needs a certain amount of funds
to make bond. To further gain the victims trust the scammer will have an associate get on the phone with the victim and pretend to be their loved one. The second scammer pretends to be in a panic, likely crying and incoherent.

And will tell their loved one they need money asap. In this case the scammers went further. After contacting the victim,
they provided instructions on how the victim could pay the bond. They instructed the victim to withdraw the bond amount and place it into an envelope. They then instructed the target that someone would come by their residence and retrieve the money. The scammers then summoned an uber to retrieve the funds. Fortunately, the family and Uber Technologies inc. intervened and notified the Sheriff’s Office thwarting the offender(s) plans. If the pickup had been successful, the scammers would then have created another stop in the uber ride and offered the Uber driver an exorbitant tip to deliver the package to another location over 100 miles away.

The financial exploitation of our elders is one of the fasting growing crimes in the nation. It comes in many forms. These outlaws scour the internet and newspapers for information on their next target. They use computer applications to clone the true phone number of a legitimate business or entity. Thus, it will look like that person or entity is calling you. They will locate the name of a local officer from a website or newspaper and then impersonate that officer and request money in lieu of arrest. Law Enforcement will never call and request money for bail, missing jury duty or any other reason. The IRS does not generate contact through a telephone call, and they will not call you threatening arrest for monies owed. Other popular methods include the lonely-hearts or car crash scams.

The lonely heart scam is one of the oldest. With this method an offender will befriend someone over the internet or social media and gain the victims trust over a period of time. They will exchange photos, messages and may even share phone conversations with a victim. After trust is gained, they will profess their love for the victim. After more time elapses and that trust has been gained the scammer will then ask the victim for money.

The car crash scam is similar to the arrest scam. The offender will call the victim pretending to be a relative, typically a grandchild. They will then pretend to be the loved one and in a state of distress. They will then tell the grandparent they have to wire a certain amount of money because they have been in a car crash and need the funds to avoid arrest.
These folks have the theatrics down to an art. And when a grandparent hears a panicked voice on the phone it can easily lead them to believe it is legitimate. On top of that the offender limits the call(s) to mere seconds so the victim will not have time to understand that it is not their loved one on the other end of the phone.

Another is the sweepstakes or lottery scam. The scammer will contact you and congratulate you on your good fortune of being today’s big winner. To retrieve your money you simply need to pay the taxes or handling fees. They then ask you to pay those fees with prepaid debit cards. One the victim pays with the cards the scammer then transfers the funds another account. Which many times is in another country. Or they will transfer it multiple times through different accounts making it harder to trace or recover.

Scammers are active 24/7 in their attempts to take your nest egg and hard-earned money. If anyone instructs you to purchase prepaid debit cards to pay a bill, fine or fee, don’t do it is a scam! Please share this with your loved ones. As always reach out to our office if you have any questions.

Joe Wood, Lieutenant Investigator
Clay County Sheriff’s Office