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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#1 Police will never call and ask you for money
#2 EVEN if they did, it would not be in the form of a gift card, Western Union or other non sense payment.
#3 Tell them you will call them back at the listed # on the Police department’s web page and ask for that person to verify it.
#4 Call the non emergency # and file a police report on the incident.
#5 DON’T let ANYONE fool or scare you into parting with your hard earned money unless it is 100% verified. 99.99 % of these things are BS scams.
Rule of thumb – police will never give you a warning they are coming to serve a warrant. Be smart. Your local police do not care that there is someone out there impersonating them. You would think they would be all over trying to stop it – but heck look who they are targeting “us”. We are the easy target. Get smart and get educated on what law can and can not do. Power is knowledge!
There’s another scam going around where certain people are forced to go to their local police stations and turn over personal data, then these scammers place the data on this public shaming website, and if you refuse, they imprison you and force you to pay them lots of money.In many places, you’re required to pay for it. This scam’s been going on for decades, and yet, there aren’t enough folks fighting it.
Thanks for the chuckle Derek. Yeah, I know it’s not funny.
Derek
There are two schools of thought. The first one says :
“It is going to get worse before it gets better”.
The second one says :
“Things are bound to get better”.
I am somewhere in between. I try and stay optimistic but even the Bible says :
John 16:33 : “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
I know and realize I had to be punished for the things I did(and apparently some I didn’t do were thrown in) but at what point after doing your time given by a judge, can you move on?
ONE freaking word is holding us down “Punishment”. Because the courts keep ruling it is NOT punishment, therefor we can quit whinning according to them.
Same game ,different place. Just think of how much money they have saved just because the states have freely given them over a million names of which most scammers have to pay for.
Maybe if the states would start charging for access to the hit lists they could pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars to raise the income of lobbyists and politicians to better finance there shady opulence.
DavidM
Still not sure why anyone on the registry would have a listed phone #. I have never gotten a call about the registry. But did get several scam mailings with my name, address and photo. I have a prepaid phone which is not listed anywhere, except at the sheriff’s office and is not made public.
If someone has an unlisted # and are getting these calls, then yeah, something fishy is going on somewhere.
How are the phone numbers being obtained? Is law enforcement leaking this information out on purpose?
Each and every person who has been called, needs to provide the phone number that appeared on caller ID, along with date and time of that call and if possible the duration of the call in seconds. If this data was collected, it becomes very easy to track down the origin of the call.
Until people wake up and realize they need to work together, this will NEVER end.
Nick
I personally have dealt with them, and filled reports with the police. The are not going to waste there time trying to follow up on these guys . It’s to time consuming for them to bother. The phone numbers you give them don’t mean anything , there fake numbers to resemble you local police station.
If you have someone’s name and address it’s easy to google there phone number. Although the police department might be supplying that to if requested.
It’s so much easier for police to pick on someone they know where they live , and know you are probably not carrying a gun and they can push around all they want and get away with it. Like you , and me.
Nick
Some people have phone #’s that are listed in the phone directory. I have a cell phone only and no one knows my number except the debt collectors and Jerry Springer LOL
Lol I didn’t know you can pay to have a warrant removed. Sounds like some shady Mexico federalis or South American law enforcement that can be paid off to have a warrant removed. That alone tells me this is a scam. Have a warrant removed for a fee? Lol
Haha! I had 3 of these Bozos call me in the last 6 months! The next time it happens, and I am sure that it will, I think I am going to play along and have fun with these idiots. Think I will tell them of my super secret triangulating software that pinpoints masked phone numbers and their location!
You have NO IDEA how many people have no idea that FAC (or other advocacy groups) exist, have never received a warning about these scams, but contact us on a weekly basis only AFTER being victimized and then searching online.
Literally 10+ a week.
It’s horrible.
WE NEED to inform all 70K+ on the Florida registry and all 900K+ nationwide that this scam exists. Otherwise, it is very easy to fall victim to this.
Adding that it’s up to us. If you think FDLE or any local sheriff’s office will warn those coming in to register, you’re delusional.
We’ve BEGGED FDLE to implement some notice to all registrants that this scam exists and they’ve responded with nothing.
Probably the cops themselves running the scams. They have access to the data. They inherently enjoy using fear to manipulate and abuse vulnerable people. That’s all the evidence I need.
Of the 70k registrants in Florida, does that include the dead ones and those that left? Last I heard (it’s been a while, honestly), when you take them and those incarcerated out, Florida’s registrant population was around 39K.
Not being snarky (well, maybe a little), but I think that’s a point that needs to be made repeatedly to show what a waste the registry is and a total scam in Florida in particular considering their SORNA grants are given based on registry population.
I was thinking of setting up with the FBI, a Greendot (or whatever) card. It’d show up as a real number and would even let a purchase go through. …Then, the FBI/HSI would jump on them (😒 if they cared)
Tim
I also feel it is crazy people fall for this. Having said that, some people get really scared when they face being re-arrested and do not think clearly or think things through. We cannot shame the victims for that but try and educate them like FAC is doing by posting these.
Problem is, not everyone on the registries know about FAC.
Our population is paranoid and extremely worried about mis-stepping in any way.
No, FAC, this is not a paranoid population.
It is a largely rational population that just happens to be strictly liable for vague complex laws.
That’s what the scammers are exploiting.
New registrants in particular, who’ve never been in trouble before, are being quite rational when they allow the scammers to convince them that there’s a problem.
Excellent mailer on this, btw.
There is NO WAY for newer registrants to know these are scams. How can they, if newer registrants are offline and/or lack experience with our legal system?
That’s why offline mailers such as the most recent one from FAC are so important. Otherwise, how would they even be in a position to know that FAC even exists?