We like to post these every so often to remind everyone on the registry and their families that there are individuals out there that use the public registry to commit scams against persons required to register and their families.
It has been VERY prevalent in Florida and although the FDLE has done nothing to warn those on the registry about it, we’ve done our best to keep it prevalent in our updates, but no region of the United States is immune.
Police in Story County Iowa issued the following warning:
The Story County Sheriff’s office is cautioning residents that a man has been making scam phone calls, posing as a law enforcement official and demanding money. The caller identifies himself as Detective Aiden with the Story County Sheriff’s Office.“The scammer will advise the individual of a warrant out for their arrest due to non-compliance with sex offender registry laws,” according to a news release. “The scammer instructs the individual to go to purchase a specific money card from Walgreens to enable payment over the phone. This scam call typically comes from a 515 area code.” Capt. Nicholas Lennie of the Story County Sheriff’s office said it’s not uncommon for scammers to use the actual names of personnel from the sheriff’s office.“We’ve received a number of calls in our dispatch office advising about this,” Lennie said. “Scammers tend to prey on people who are more vulnerable and may fall to those types of calls.
Interesting that they acknowledge people on the registry as “vulnerable”.
Florida does nothing to warn people about these scams but look what Pennsylvania does:
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/08/27/pennsylvania-registered-sex-offender-scam/
https://www.readingeagle.com/2021/08/27/state-police-phone-scam-registered-sex-offenders/
http://levittownnow.com/2021/08/27/troopers-warn-of-scam-targeting-sex-offenders/
I get about a dozen scam calls everyday. When I have time I like to play games with them. I have fun seeing how long it takes me to get them to hang up on me. They have now come up with a system to make their calls look like a local calls. I will sometimes start off by asking them how the weather is in Bangladesh? That closes them down pretty fast. I also like the calls to lower my interest rate on a credit card I have never had. I tell them my current rate is zero and I would like to get it down to negative five percent. That brings the call to a pretty swift end. I also tell the Social Security officer to go get a real job.
Currently going through a second scammer scenario as I’m writing this.
Second time in about two months,I get a call from a person claiming to be a detective, telling me a father made a complaint about me and his so called underage daughter, says I can clear it up with the father and his lawyer, long story short, there just looking to extort money for keeping there silence.
In both cases I called the actual sheriff’s dept to check on the so called detective.
One was from ashville North Carolina and the current one is claiming the ocala florida police dept.
There trying to extort offenders for thousands of dollars on scare tactics. In both cases I just told them,you want to arrest me then do it. I’ll fight it in court,plain and simple.
These people look to fear of the law to accomplish there goal.
Like was previously said, if it was a real leo, I wouldn’t get a call,been told they would get a warrent, I would just be picked up and charged with no warning.
I’ve had 3 of these scam calls so far. I’ve reported all 3 of them to Clay County Sheriff’s Office which didn’t care. They wouldn’t even take a report and weren’t interested in (valid) return phone number or any details. I’d think they’d at least like to go after them for impersonating a police officer.
You can INSIST on filing a police report.
and they say that the registry is not punishment!! Yeah Right!!
To Jerry, this is stretching the topic, but I read this in a Document which seems to not apply to registrants; it is called The Bill Of Rights. It contains these words……life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness (emphasis mine). Liberty is defined as “The state of being free from control and restriction”. I’ve done my time, paid the price for my despicable transgressions. But unlike other felons who have completed the terms of their sentence, I am still being CONTROLLED AND RESTRICTED. I wonder if that has been challenged in the courts. I am not “free”. I am being told where I can and cannot live, have to notify the authorities any time I travel, under the constant threat of the registration laws. How is that free from control or restriction, or Liberty?
If anyone has information on this having been challenged, or the efficacy of challenging it, please reply to my post. I’ve been trying to find a precedent for this but haven’t found anything.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is actually a phrase written in the Declaration of Independence, not the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights are enumerated rights derived from the US Constitution.
Yes, you are technically correct, but I did not post the comment to be corrected in such an insignificant fashion. I made a correct statement about our rights as citizens, then asked a question regarding that right as applies to registered citizens. Thank you.
Also, keep a record of all scam attempts. These are needed for our court challenges.
I don’t know the efficacy of this information, but there is an FDLE website that supposedly will return a response to a warrant inquiry:
http://pas.fdle.state.fl.us/pas/restricted/PAS/person/WantedPersons.jsf
My goals are to work with law enforcement. Some need to be educated just the same as the general public.
I just got a call from a Georgia number and I’m in Florida so I didn’t answer it because I don’t know the number. The guy left a message saying he was Sheriff something I couldn’t make out what he was saying and then he just said urgent urgent warrant something. He then said you can get back to me at my own cell phone number. I think he was reading his script and confused my cell phone number with what he was supposed to say. This is the second time in the past 2 years I’ve gotten a call like this. Don’t these guys know a real Sheriff would never say anything about warrant over the phone. They would just come and get you?
I just now noticed the last sentence of the lead article. Yes, many registrants are vulnerable in that the threats l that I’ve read and heard of are along the lines of public exposure.
I’m sure there are many on the registry who have settled in a city other than the one in which they were sentenced. In that case there are basically only a couple ways that anyone would know about their past: the Internet, and if they have told anyone. Of course their employer would know. Others went back to where they got their time but, unlike me, there was not any coverage of their trial. So the ones who know about them are who they’ve told, or who knew them when they were indicted or prosecuted.
The threats amount to spreading it around town, causing problems with the registrant’s employer with falsehoods and telling their co-workers and neighbors that they are a child molester, dangerous predator, generally wreaking havoc with their lives. Telling the parents of their children’s friends. The possibilities of blackmail are endless.
For many, it could mean loss of a job, physical assaults, maybe being run out of the neighborhood, being asked to leave their church and such.
Unless the registrant stands up to them, call their bluff, and in general throw threats back at the scammer, and being tough with them, that makes them vulnerable.
My situation is different because of past intensive training, experiences, and knowing how to gain the upper hand and maintain it, and never ever show any weakness. My heart goes out to those people because I wish they could have the benefit of my background. Being blackmailed is a tough place to be. It is difficult to not show fear and not let the fear and stress overtake you.
There is no simple solution to learning to put these sociopaths in their place. It takes a lot of self-confidence and never showing fear and weakness. Believe me, it is really hard to go from a person who let people walk on me and no self-confidence to the person who got tired of that crap and became determined to turn it around. My prayers are with you who struggle with that.
But then on the other hand, the scammers are probably weak and chicken#$$_cowards. That is what I use against them, and from my experience found them to be cowards hiding behind burner numbers, VoIPs, and fake names (or so they thought). When I’ve gotten the scam calls, I immediately picture them as being weak cowards and used it against them.
Please report all scam calls to your sheriff office and insist that you want to file a police report. The scammers are impersonating law enforcement and THAT is the reason for filing the police report.
Here on the FAC board, for the first time, an individual scammer has been personally identified (below).
So an actual deputy is involved in these scams? But how do we know? Because a retired detective says so?
If accurate, the scammer needs to be fully doxxed. Someone ought to set up a webpage for that purpose, as a warning to other scammers.
You just said (twice) that officers should be killed. Sorry but I don’t think this is the right platform for that sort of bullshit.
Thanks for the catch, Jacob.
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To Jacob: I have known the homicide detective since 1968. I knew him at my church where he was a deacon, and I also knew him through my job, as his wife worked for me for almost 29 years. To be totally honest he is the only “cop” I would trust to tell me the truth.
I offended one time, in Feb ’89, and I trusted him enough to call him, not for advice or anything official related to my charge. He looked into it on his own and was honest enough to tell me to be really careful because the prosecutor assigned to my case was over-zealous and trying to make a big name for herself by doing almost ANYTHING to assure a conviction. If not for him, I would not have found out about the collusion between the DAs office, the CPS, and the so-called “therapists” that had been recommended. The main therapist was so bad and had lost so many clients that he was dependent on CPS referrals and was telling them whatever the DA wanted to hear. I also found out through him that the DAs family liaison was sitting in on all the therapist’s meetings. On top of that, he told me that the group I was attending was lead by a probation officer who, to start off the first session, came in, sat down and said “I really don’t know much about all this crap, but I started this group just to see what makes you perverts tick”. I continued with the group for appearances, but said virtually nothing during the sessions.
That’s how I knew I could trust him to get to the bottom of things. So yeah, I took it on his say so that I had the name and other pertinent information about the scammer. I have his real name, cell number, home address, cell carrier, landline number in case he came after me with further intimidation, or tried it again. I cannot be intimidated not frieghtened by people like him. They prey on who they think is weak and can be easily scared. People like myself who stand their ground and stand up to them frieghtens them.
Not all LE is bad. We have a tendency to cast our negative attitudes caused by bad experiences with LE in these posts as a way to express ourselves. But I’m glad Larry C has someone in LE he can trust. There are many others in LE who are trustworthy too, like the three from my local department my lawyer called in as witnesses to testify to a judge that they do not belive I’m a danger in the community in stark contrast to the argument an overzealous prosecutor was trying to make.
I never answer calls in real time. EVER. I screen ALL calls from my answering machine. This thwarts 99% of robocalls, scams and unsolicited cold sales calls.
Remember, scammers and other individuals with nefarious intentions generally will NOT leave a message because that will be recorded evidence of their voice and of their dubious intent.
These leave messages.
Yes, they most certainly do leave messages. Often times they say “call me back on my cell at…” but the cell number is actually an untraceable Google Voice number that appears with the same area code as local Sheriff’s Office or PD. Really good scammers can actually “spoof” the nu.ber of the local LE office.
About 3 months ago, I got a call with the threat of arrest for failure to register. They wanted me to pay a fine via my credit card over the phone. I told the scammer to come and arrest me and to make sure I was in jail in time for dinner. He hung up. I wasn’t arrested either.
⚠️ there are also a group of people who are stalking and following offenders 24/7 even running them off the road or even threatening there life.this is very real,right out of a spy movie except there going to try to set u up with entrapment. Or have you mentally declared crazy.or if that doesn’t work then plausible deniability. Iv ask for help, very sound minded .overwhelming pics videos same people same 3 places same day.my life is in danger and not even this website would reach out to help me.i know its coming close due to things are smping up by this mob like.group. I’m just waiting this is really a warning for others to be cautious. Just randomly pick according to a utube doc.
Local pinellas largo and Clearwater seem to ,really don’t care. So I won’t call no more. NO CRAZY JACKET FOR ME
MY NAME IS AARON.I HAVE A GOOD HART LOVE EVERYONE,
HUMANITY IS MY GOTO PLACE OF THOUGHT. ONE DAY
Dear Aaron Chapman, where is this happening exactly? I have not heard of anyone being followed or harassed in the Clearwater area…except for the allegations thst folks associated with the Church of Scientology monitor and follow outsiders.
Off of harn and 19.im at A lost on what to do .iv been send out massive amounts of videos and pics. To prove it to friends .but the police said there nothing they can do unless they do somthing . But I now know I’m a offender,so they really can care less I wish more people would just come and see or ask me for the evidence, then they see,and the only reason I knew and spotted is because of a call I thought was a prank ,but he was really giving me a heads up on what was about to happen
Dear Aaron Chapman. I still don’t understand where it is you are experiencing this. Please tell us the city where you have these encounters. I live in Clearwater. Never happened to me there. Thanks.
Clearwater florida
I do not mind these scam calls. They give me an opportunity to exercise some of my ‘Navy’ language skills.
Me too!. And i wasn’t in the Navy… 😏
I received two of these scam calls in North Texas, north of Dallas. The first time I was only 75% sure it was a scam so I took a chance and told them no way was I falling for that crap. He tried to scare me by saying that there were two deputy sheriffs on the way to my house. I told him that was doubtful because the real deal would not call ahead and tell me to come in before the deputies got there. I blew him off. Then deja vu all over again. I told both of them that I do not scare easily and was certainly not going to be intimidated by scammers such as himself. That has been a number of months ago, and no more scam calls.
Around here, the real deal is gonna show up with a warrant and certainly are not going to call ahead.
If it happens again, I’ll try to get the police to use me as bait, meet with them, wired of course and take ’em down. Don’t know if they will go for it, bit that stuff really sticks in my craw.
Back in October I experienced a new scam. Some dude rides up on a bicycle, with a clipboard with handwritten notes, and claims to be a paralegal who can get me off the registry, get this, through the SORNA law. Well, I ain’t as stupid as I look, told him no way, I’ve already looked into it and I do not qualify. He tried arguing with me, so this 71 YO man told him to get the h*** off my property and do not come back. i made a copy of the CCTV footage and gave it to my registering officer. He told me that it really hacks him off that people try to take advantage of us. Don’t know if they caught him, but I tried.
I do not recommend my tactics to anyone else, bit that is what happened with me. I stood up to them and held my ground.
Yep. Mee too. Around Christmas/New Years got a call as Larry C. mentioned. This guy gives a fake name from the Dallas Co. Sheriff’s office and had spoofed the phone number so it showed up as real. They had 3 guys working this scam to make it sound like it was real. At first it scared the hell out of me but I kept them on the phone for about 20 minutes. The longer we talked and the more questions I asked, the more suspicious I became. So I had access to a land line and put it on speaker so he could hear me calling and I dialed the real sheriff’s dept to check on this. He got really aggressive and started yelling and told me to stop calling. I said I was calling my attorney. At that point i knew for sure this was bogus. He hung up. Then, about 3 weeks later I get a call from some other jerk that tried the same thing and left a voicemail. This idiot was so illiterate he could hardly read his script! Haha. So, The next time this happens, and it will, I will be sure to go all Cpt. Charles on them. Be safe eveyone and lets put this stupid law in the ground where it belongs.
I forgot to mention one important thing. One of the scammers in the DFW area is a for real Tarrant County deputy
I have a friend who is a retired homicide detective in my city (we attended the same church, and his wife worked for me for 17 years). I asked him if he could looked into it for me. I have the name of the Tarrant County deputy and found, via my old contacts, where he lives and his real phone number
.I was sure it was a scam from the git-go because the real deal will have an area code of 940- and the prefix for this city.
But the problem seems to be that there is no real interest on taking these guys down. All I get is lip service from the locals and FBI. But then they may only be playing it close to the vest.
If that is the case, that guy needs to be outed, arrested and put on trial. and hopefully convicted. What a piece of shit.
We are working on it and getting close. The problem is avoiding entrapment. I have talked to several registered citizens who have not been contacted and hoping they will receive a scam call. Then we can possibly do something. But the problem is that I have nothing to lose. Many others cannot take the chance that the scammers will ruin their lives if they do not comply with their threats. Personally, I feel that the threats are just that, threats. But who knows? It’s like I told my registering officer, if they want to come after me, more power to ’em.
These kind of people are difficult to catch because they are weak and think they are not leaving a trail, hiding behind burner numbers, VoIP and such. But I was able to find one of them but no proof of wrongdoing. If I get lucky enough to get proof, then I’ll leave it to the authorities. The problem in stopping them is that there are a lot of registrants who cannot chance their lives being ruined, and I cannot fault them for that. As for myself, it’s like the old Bob Dylan song, When you ain’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose. Besides most people know about me anyway since I’ve lived here for 57 years.
Maybe on a registry, as well. (/sarc)