IA: Scammers are nationwide
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”.
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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.