VA: State Police warn of phone scams targeting registered sex offenders
State Police have recently been alerted of an increase in phone scams targeting sex offenders.
Officials say the consistent theme among these scams has been phone fraudsters threatening people into paying large amounts of money in the form of gift cards.
Police say the phone scammers are calling offenders claiming to be a “Lieutenant Johnson” from the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office. The scammers claim that there is a warrant for their arrest for failure to provide a DNA sample, or the warrant can be removed for a fee.
The scammers then provide instructions on how the payment should be submitted. Police say it is usually in the form of a gift card from a local business.
According to police, the scammers will often manipulate caller ID, to make the number appear to come from a nearby police office or local sheriff’s office.
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This happened to me about 6 months ago. The second time was about 2 months ago, and the last one was last Sunday. The first time I hung up on him. The second time I just hung up and reported it to the sheriff’s department, and last Sunday I gave him some analytical observations I had about his character for him to think about.
The first time the guy was very convincing at first, but quickly became apparent it was a scam.
Sunny, Southen California (especially Orange County) is rife with “scammers” promising to obtain ” a Certificate of Rehabilitation”. Beware !
Richard
The circus great, P.T Barnum once stated ” There’s a sucker born every minute “. It is sad but true.
On the local news yesterday was an elderly lady who got scammed twice in the same week by the same people. She ended up losing over $40,000 . Luckily someone in law enforcement actually helped her not only get the money back, but also arrest the jerk.
I had this happen to me 5 months ago. What was strange is they weren’t asking for money they wanted me to go to the jail to clear up the bench warrant for not submitting the DNA. At some point I am sure they would have asked for money. They try to keep up on the phone and make threats. Every time I thought it might be a scam and started to question the call they would do something like call me from the main sheriffs office number. Thankfully I have a friend whom I have known for a long time in law enforcement and I merged him on the call.
I know most don’t have that luxury
IMO Best thing to do is ask for his name, badge number, and his extension and ask when he will be at his desk. Cause at the end of the day he isn’t making those kind of calls off the clock. If you feel him getting hostile hang up! If they truly have a warrant on one of us they aren’t gonna give us a curtesy call.
I was a victim of this in Palm Beach County. They used the names of officers I knew. They also said that for a fee they could get me off the SOR. Fortunately I almost immediately reported them stolen so my final loss was only about $200.
Daniel
Last December,someone at a store stole my credit card information. They ran up about $8000 worth of stuff. I immediately got an alert on my phone and called American Express. They shut down the card and told me I was would not have to pay any of the charges.
#1 I called the police and gave them all the info as well as the store it happened. NOTHING , I mean Nothing was done.
#2 The store tried coming after ME for the charges and threatened to ruin my credit. I finally called their corporate office and asked them if I needed to hire a lawyer for harassment. About an hour later their finance office said the Police report # I gave them was enough and I was not responsible.
Corporate told me that a skimmer had been found at one of the readers on the gas pump. American express had already told me that. Needless to say I do not buy gas there anymore. I would say the name of the place but be my luck I would get sued. But it is the most well known convienance store around.