New Version of an Old Scam Circulating in Stephens County

A recent scam in Stephens County involves telephone calls from a fake Stephens County Sheriff’s Deputy.

According to Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley, the calls have primarily targeted senior citizens and the caller claims to be Sergeant Mathews with the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.

Judge Russel “Rusty” Smith said the scammer tells victims they could be arrested.

“We received several calls from local residents who received telephone calls from someone that said they were a deputy or law enforcement officer and told them if they did not make a substantial payment then they would be arrested,” said Smith. “They were told they would go and buy a gift card or something like that and then call them back with the number. This is a scam.”

The fake deputy tells the resident there’s a warrant for their arrest for missing jury duty and in order to avoid jail, the citizen must pay by purchasing a Green dot card from Walgreens in the amount of $511.

This is a scam and Smith as well as the sheriff’s office reminds citizens that a real sheriff’s deputy would not call you on the phone or shake you down for money.

“If they receive such telephone calls they should not pay. Any legitimate law enforcement officer would not demand payment over the phone,” said Smith. “If they receive a call along those lines they should contact the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office or the clerk of court at 706-886-3598.”

Shirley said there are reports of this type of scam dating back to 2005. The older version of it involved perpetrators calling victims pretending to be a court administration employee. The fake employee would tell the victim they missed jury duty and as a result there is a warrant out for their arrest.

The fraudster would follow by asking for personally identifiable information such as a social security number or date of birth. This early version of the scam was meant to steal the victim’s identity.

The scam has since evolved to the fake court employee demanding money from the victim. The most recent version involves the perpetrator initiating the scam by calling homes and asking for the target by name.

The perpetrators have most recently been targeting married couples and will usually indicate that the arrest warrant is for the wife.

The law enforcement impersonator will sometimes go as far as providing a date, time, judge’s name, courtroom number and location where the jury duty was supposedly missed.

One victim has even reported the sound of police radios and other telephone calls in the background.

All across Georgia and the nation, law enforcement agencies have reported some variation of this scam and it continues to be enhanced by perpetrators spoofing the telephone number of the agency to call victims in that jurisdiction.

Again, if you receive one of these calls, you are asked to immediately report it to the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.