By Kayleen Holder
Editor
“Phone scammers have taken over $12,000 from hardworking people in Medina County in the past two weeks,” said Sheriff Randy Brown. “And I know of at least two more who were on their way to the bank when they called me.”
A frustrated Sheriff Brown reiterates that Medina County Sheriff’s Office, nor any other local police department, will ever call you to get payment to avoid being arrested.
“I tell people all of the time, I post it on Facebook, I even stood up at church and told people at church to please stop talking to these phone scammers,” Sheriff Brown said. “This needs to be on the front page, because people, intelligent people, are falling for it.”
Many of these scammers will insist you missed jury duty, have a civil case to settle, or have some other kind of warrant for your arrest.
“Just hang up immediately and block their number, because they are good at what they do,” Sheriff Brown said. “They have their phone systems set up so that if they call and you call them back, it sounds very professional. Some even have phone prompts for the different departments you want to speak to, and even have pre-recorded background noise.”
“We will not call you for that. I don’t know of a single law enforcement agency that would ever call you for that. If there is a warrant for your arrest, we will just come find you….The bottom line is do not even talk to anyone claiming you have a warrant, civil case, or missed jury duty summons,” Sheriff Brown said.
The sheriff noted, he himself, has been targeted by these scammers, and there’s little to nothing they can do.
“People keep falling for it and it is very, very sad. Once you read that card number, your money is gone, and there is nothing we can do about it. We get calls daily from people who were contacted by scammers like this.”
Most of these scammers will eventually ask you to buy a pre-paid Visa card or insert money into a Bitcoin machine to pay, he explained.
“They also use the names of local people like my name, Chris Champion, Malcolm, and many others. Someone can sit in another country and spoof the number to make it appear like it is our office calling.”
“They are good at convincing people that if they don’t take this opportunity to pay, they will be going to jail,” Sheriff said. “The only thing worse than a thief is a lying thief, and that’s exactly what these people are.”