WARNING: New Scam Targets Sex Offenders
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.
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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.