The following was shared by a Member:
I’m writing to inform you of a scam that was pulled on my husband who is a sex offender last night in hopes you can share with others so it doesn’t happen to them. He received a phone call from a man claiming to be a deputy from SPOT. Long story short, he convinced my husband that he missed his registration because he wasn’t told that he now needed to register quarterly instead of every 6 months. In order to not be arrested, he told him that he could place a bail deposit of $500 and then he could register at the sheriff’s office and not be booked into jail. After instructing him to purchase a prepaid money pak from Walgreens, he then asked for the card number of the money pak so he could enter it in the system before he arrived at the sheriff’s office. My husband became very skeptical at this point and did not give him the number, went to the sheriff’s office, which was closed and basically pushed the man’s buttons until he exploded, calling him a “kid fucker” and saying he made $5,500 off of sex offenders this week. I am glad he didn’t scam him out of the $500, but furious that someone is taking advantage of sex offenders because they are so scared to get arrested for something they didn’t know they did wrong. I am also terrified because our address is listed online and he could come to our house at any time. I hope you can tell others about this so they can verify won they are talking to if it happens to them. This man knew a lot about SPOT and the process of registering as a sex offender.
Boward and Oceola County
Unfortunately, this is still going on, only more elaborate and the stakes are higher. $9,600 cash bail, no bond.
My story was too long for this comment so just wanted to update you that they are getting more aggressive.
If a moderator wants to know more informationt, let me know.
This just happened to my boyfriend. Making him lose his new job and his piece of mind. We had been living in New Mexico but since moved to WY..after being in his new job only a few weeks he recieved a call stating he had missed court regarding his registration times and there was now a warrant out for his arrest. So he took off to New Mexico in the middle of his work day, told his boss he had a family emergency . When he was half way to New Mexico he started thinking something wasnt right and once he got to NM went to the police and found out it was a scam. These people continued to call and threaten him for several days. Got my BF all upset. But now i have found several things on the internet to show him and to reassure him its ok..
Thanks to sites such as this makes it better knowing your not alone…
Sorry to hear but insist he file a police report. The more people who report these, the more likely they will be investigated.
This just happened to me in Wisconsin. I received 2 calls with in 5 min. of each other. I received 2 voicemails from the same guy, the first VM He said he was from the county sheriffs office that I live in now, a few min. later he called and left another VM saying he was from a diferant county. Both times stating that I had missed a “scheduled” meeting and that there is now a warrant for my arrest they gave a number to call back. I called the wisconsin SORP, Its a scam!!!
File a police report!
Unfortunately I was running late for work and allowed my emotions to get the best of me and because I’m socially unconnected and don’t watch the news, I was unaware of this scam and yes I fell victim to it and got had for $394.00. This person stating he was Captain Nick Curry with the Forsyth Co. Sheriff’s office in GA and that I had a warrant for my arrest but I would not get arrested if I agreed to bond out on it over the phone and appear in court and the issue would be thrown out as a human error on their part. Everything in my gut instinct told me I was getting had but again, so easy for us to get violated on stupid crap that I believed this moron. Not to mention he had and knew way to much information about me and the department which would lead one to believe it was an inside job or that their system has been hacked. Neither which are a very good sign on our part. Because how else would they have access to our personal numbers to call us because that information is not listed on the national registry???
Happened to me in Georgia. Said officer in charge of registry was being investigated and bench warrants were active. Same as others. I figured it out. SO sent out letters to all of us. They could have mentioned this was happening.
Happened today in Jacksonville FL. Guy (Sgt Jeffrey Carter) sounded very legit, said we had been mailed a notice to come to courthouse April 4-5 for some national data base thing they were doing to verify any changes in appearance, tattoos, etc. We missed it so if we don’t come downtown by tomorrow to pay $500 husband will go to jail for 90 days. We had simultaneous heart attacks on the spot, the nightmare that started 13 years ago never really goes away, just when you’re trying to live your life it comes back one way or another.(and the charge was a picture that we got virused with. On our joint computer.Bam, your normal life is over.)Fortunately, I have several clients who are attorneys and immediately called one, while husband called the registration office, and it’s a freaking scam. We reported the number but I’m sure it’s a throw away phone. The police say we’re not the first and they’re investigating, but my older jaded self thinks not much will be done because we’re sub-citizens now. Oh well. The number this particular douche left is 904-413-0101. I’m sure he’ll change soon but if you get a call like this make the police Dept or registration office be your first call, BEFORE you stroke out or have a heart attacks.
Had this happen to me two days ago. Fortunately, I trusted my instincts, and drove to the Sheriffs Office, instead of to a retailer to purchase the “Safe-N-Secure” voucher they told me I needed to get. What a crock of shit. They kept me on the phone the whole time, and sounded VERY believable. They used local geographical landmarks, and talked about the inside of the lobby at the Sheriff’s office.
When I got to the Sheriff’s Office, the doors were locked, and the parking lot was vacant. I told the guy that I beat him by keeping him on the phone for an hour and not giving him a nickel.
Just FYI, I’m in Texas and this same scam call happened to me two days ago. My suspicions and curiousity led me to doing a search on “sex offender scam” and I found this site. Anyway, I’m out washing my car and the phone rings, answering machine picks up the first part of it – a guy saying he’s a detective and needs to speak with me about issues of my registration. I picked it up and he’s telling me the sex offender laws have changed this year and that I should have received notice of this; since I haven’t I will need to take care of it ASAP. He says he’s calling from the local PD (which is only 10 minutes from my house), so I tell him, fine, I’ll drive over there and meet you. He cuts me off saying I can’t get in my car unless I have a cell phone (which I don’t) to stay in touch with him and that I need to drive to the nearest retail store and buy a prepaid phone and then call him from there. The nearest retail store is 20 miles from me so I tell him I’m not doing that… that he can just drive over here from the PD and pick me up if he has to. He gets belligerent and finally says he’s not a detective and starts berating me about my offense from 20 years ago. Anyway, after giving him my thoughts of him in a couple of (censored) words I hung up.
Good for you. You can’t imagine how many people find us only AFTER they’ve been screwed by these scammers.
Unfortunately, registrants are so paranoid of getting violated for something they have never heard of, they don’t take chances and just do whatever someone tells them.
Happened in Georgia this morning.
Emailed by Member;
I just spoke with my roommate, who says that a coworker of his, who is also a registered citizen here in FL who relayed that he had been ‘scammed’ of $1500 to persons posing as law enforcement here in Florida. They reportedly told that person that a warrant was being issued for his arrest for failure to register, and that he would need to purchase a “green-dot” bond for $1500 in order to keep from being arrested. This coworker purchased the bond, and later found out that it was a scam. According to my roommate, he did report the incident to ‘police’, and they acknowledged that his was not the first incident they had heard of, but I have no knowledge of any further action on their part beyond what I have already stated.
I do not know of any other incidents of this nature, but do wish to pass this along as a caution to anyone who is contacted by people claiming to be part of a legal enforcement agency, particularly if they are asking for money! With the registration reminder service in place, none of us should ever have to worry about being in this situation to begin with!
A similar scam has been reported in Nebraska.
And Texas
It’s hard to believe that NO ONE except NARSOL or a few state action committees are able or willing to do anything about these private and government scam jobs. The entire system is incentivized to promote these nightmarish situations! ALL cash all the time is a good place to start with trying to root all this out. Follow the money! How does that parole officer afford a new Lexus? On his salary from the govt? Is it the kickbacks he gets from the “treatment” providers who pay him cash sweeteners to squeeze their various captive clienteles?
Sounds like someone from within law enforcement running the scam. Something similar like this happened in Fort Worth, Texas albeit slightly different MO. This is simply one more example of how a public registry causes unnecessary harm.
Thank you!
It is probably one of their crooked cops doing it.
I have never heard of SPOT. Different counties, different depts I guess.
I deal with the county and the municipal that I reside in. Anything outside of that I ignore. I know exactly what I have to do and with who I have to do it with. That’s it. If something changes, the county would let me know once I go to register again. It has been like that for the past 10 years. There has been instances, where in those past 10 years I have had 2 weird visitors(just once luckily that I know of ) come to my house pretending they were from the city and they knew my name and everything. Keep in mind, the house I live in doesn’t have my name on the property or my name attached to anything there, so how he obtained my information can only mean “the registry”. I was careful and called the police and let them know real quick(I’m not shy). I got him on video and a neighbor friend of mine got his car tag as well. You have to be careful and vigilant in these times.
I believe I may have been initially targeted as well. I was left a message on my cell from a young man saying “Hey, this is Detective “something” (can’t make out the name as it was mumbled and the call overall had terrible sound quality) “from the registration office trying to reach (said my first and last name) and then mumbled something else that sounds like the name of my city followed by station. And then said “I’ll try again”.
You can imagine the dread, although I have done nothing wrong, at getting this message. I tried the call back feature but no go as the call came from a blocked number. He never called again and subsequently I have gone to my local SO office to register a dealer loaner car, the city police have come to my home to verify my address, as well as has police department in that shares jurisdiction with the city police and none have mentioned the call.
And so the reason for that call has remained a mystery to me. Now I wonder if it was not a call to try to scam me as well. The Hey! Salutation at the beginning of the call, the not providing a number to call back, the non-follow up call, and the overall tone and sound of the call does not sound to me to be one from law enforcement! I have kept the message and would like to forward it to your husband to see if he recognizes it. It may be the same person and with that information perhaps we can do something. If interested please post so and I will coordinate with FAC for telephone number exchanges.
Thank god your husband’s antennas kicked in just in time. I wonder if someone else may have paid and may be embarrassed to say so. I hope not. We are in this together and so need to be open among ourselves.
It would be so poetic justice that somehow this jerk gets caught. And I would not be extremely surprised if the reason this individual knows so much about SPOT is that he is a registrant. I sincerely hope not but unfortunately it is not beyond the realm of possibility. As a registrant he would be keenly aware vulnerability we feel of inadvertently missing a requirement there are so many, and they are complex, and some not fully clear or not obeyed by law enforcement themselves. As an example I went to my local sheriff’s office to register the loaner car and he flat out refused to take the information even though I had the flyer and pointed to him where it stated such. So I had to make another trip the next day to the SO office to register the loaner.
It’s no worse than the scam the government is pulling on us. Therapy, probation, polygraphs, lawyers fees for motions and defense, etc…
Let’s see. I’ve been on probation for 3 years now. Let’s do some math shall we?
Probation: $720/yr
Polygraph: $200/yr
Therapy: $1200/yr.
Total $2120/yr x 3 = $6360!!!
That’s how much money I’ve been scammed by the govt for being a so-called sex offender who didn’t even touch anyone because I wasn’t even talking to a real minor on the internet. And all of my paperwork under “victim information” is empty!!
And that’s not including the $25,000 it cost for my defense lawyer who was worthless and the $400 I had to pay him to do a motion so I could travel to South Carolina and stay overnight with my family to attend my Dad’s funeral back in November.
And I guess you can throw in some other numbers here because I lost my $160,000 house to bankruptcy after this happened, along with my $20,000 Toyota pick up truck, along with losing out on my $40,000 a year teaching and coaching job that I had, this going on 6 years now. Oh, and I had just gotten my master’s degree and still owe $40,000 on that as well. And I can’t make the payments because I’m working 3 part-time dead end jobs that can’t even pay my current bills that I have now.
So if you add all these numbers up, we are approaching $500,000 dollars that I’ve lost because of this stupid sting operation, all so the stupid sheriff’s offices can get their millions of dollars in grant money to keep their jobs. F**k my life!!!!
I know what it is like to lose everything…it drove me to the brink of suicide, but there is always hope for those willing to put their hope and trust in Christ Jesus. I did and never regretted it. Incarcetation was difficult and probation even worse, but thanks to my Lord Jesus, nothing that rose up to harm me ever succeeded. I’m now 2 years off supervision and blessed beyond anything I could have imagined. The best part is that I live with a purpose that no regulation can prohibit and believe in a future Day that promises freedom from the registry once and for all.
Prayers for you and my fellow citizens subjected to these injustices. Peace.
First, this is terrifying! I hope you reported it to the sheriff’s office – they need to know. I am sure it is a throw away phone but was he able to capture a number? Also, thanks so much for letting us know! Lastly, what is SPOT? I am not familiar with that term and what county was it?
Sexual Predator and Offender Tracking (SPOT)
It’s generally the department within the County Sheriff’s office in charge of administering the registry for that County
Here in Jacksonville-Duval it’s called “Offender Tracking Unit.” That’s what’s on the card a detective gave me.
Also, as a precaution, I never answer my phone unless I know the number calling, i.e. it’s in my contacts list. I also have no message so when someone calls me, there is nothing after the beep. Dead silence. This stops a lot of robocalls which are voice activated and leaves telemarketers perplexed.