Boone County citizens are being told to think twice about incoming phone calls. The Boone County Sheriff's Department says they have received a number of calls from citizens reporting an individual claiming to be a sheriff’s deputy has called them.
He tells the person there is a warrant for their arrest that can be resolved by a payment over the phone.
The Sheriff's Department says most of the calls have asked citizens to obtain a Green Dot card or similar product to pay for warrants like failure to appear for jury duty and several citizens have been scammed out of hundreds of dollars already.
“Law enforcement or any other governmental entity does not call people asking for money over the telephone,” said Boone County Detective Tom O’Sullivan who wants to inform people of the Departments operations. “We do not call people and ask them to buy prepaid debit cards because they have a warrant out for their arrest.”
The scammer is able to manipulate Caller ID with an actual Boone County Sheriff's Department number and has altered the voicemail greeting to sound similar to the department’s as well. O’Sullivan says because of the use of untraceable phone numbers, there is not much law enforcement can do except inform citizens to be cautious.
“The most important thing is, do not give money to someone you don’t know over the phone,” said O’Sullivan.
The Sheriff’s Department urges anyone receiving these calls to hang up immediately.