Scammers Pose as Sheriff's Officers to Scare Victims Out of Their Money

There is a scam going around San Diego right now intended to scare you out of some cash and it uses law enforcement to make it seem more realistic. A caller spoofs the phone number of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and tells the potential victim there is a warrant out for his or her arrest.

The most important piece of information to know is that no deputy or employee of the Sheriff's Department or law enforcement in general will call members of the public to demand payment for an outstanding warrant. In fact, an arrest warrant authorizes the arrest and detention of someone. It does not involve the arrest and detention of your money. 

These scams are not limited to San Diego and in fact, similar ones have been reported as far away as Australia. Scammers will use any means possible to try to trick people into giving them cash, credit card details, or send wire transfers or pre-paid debit cards. There are some indicators to listen for to determine if it is a scam and in this particular case, the caller will give reasons for the warrant as failure to appear for jury duty or failure to pay taxes. Some flags to listen for include:

• The caller is overly pushy or aggressive
• You are threatened with jail time or will have your driver’s license taken away if you don’t pay
• The caller gets very angry if you refuse to believe the story he or she is giving
• The form of payment is pre-paid card and they ask you to give them the card number via phone or they request payment by wire transfer
• They attempt to prevent you from verifying their information
• And the number one indicator is that you have not done anything against the law

Some tactics the callers are using to try to be more convincing are to use the name of an actual Sheriff's Department employee, give the phone number of an actual Sheriff’s station, and/or have some information about you such as your birthdate or a former address. Due to all the breaches lately, most people have personal infomation currently for sale on the darkweb.

If you get this type of call, don’t linger or give them any information. Just hang up the phone and report it to your local law enforcement and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). There is a form on the FTC site.