The Perry County Sheriff’s Office is warning Perry County residents to be on the look out for scam attempts online.
“We have seen an uptick in all sorts of scams, especially recently,” Sheriff Jason Klaus said. “Over the last couple of weeks we’ve posted a couple different scams that come to the attention of our office. We’re trying to do our best to just inform the public of what those might look like. We always ask our public to be vigilant, especially when people are asking for money, whether those are gift cards or any kind of money request. Definitely use vigilance before you would agree to any of those things.”
The office shared a copy of a fake federal arrest warrant that a resident received in a text message, along with a list of ways to tell if a document is fraudulent. Klaus said the most obvious sign of a scam is if the document claims you can send money to avoid an arrest.
“No law enforcement officer is going to come to your house and ask for money or call you over the phone and ask directly for a payment to get out of a warrant,” Klaus said. “That is not how our system is set up. So if you do receive those, I would get off the phone and end that conversation. You’re welcome to call our office at the Perry County Sheriff’s Office, speak with a deputy, and let them know those circumstances.”
Klaus said the sheriff’s office will do their best to confirm for you whether or not a document that has been sent to you is legitimate.
“If it doesn’t look right, feel right, go ahead and call us,” he said. ‘We can validate it, verify it, if it is legit or if we feel it is a scam. A lot of times if you end up sending money and it is a scam, there’s not a lot that we can do to get that money back once it’s sent. So before you send anything, make sure you call us.”
Klaus said that while scams are most commonly done online, it is still important to be vigilant of in-person scammers as scammers can sometimes pose as door-to-door sales people, and it can be more difficult to determine if something is legitimate when it is done in person. One such example happened recently.
“We had one a couple weeks ago where there were some door-to-door salesmen going around selling some technology,” Klaus said. “Initially when it came to us it looked like a scam. We let the public know about it and then we did verify through a couple channels that what they were doing was actually legit business, but it just gave concern to a lot of our residents and we wanted people to be aware of what was going on.”
Other signs of a scam the sheriff’s office is warning people to look out for are as follows, according to the office’s Facebook page: The document does not identify the appropriate United States Federal District and State. It contains unusual language regarding a “Gag Order” and instructs the recipient not to disclose the warrant. It references bonding, warrant dismissal receipts, reimbursement, and “cash back” procedures that are not part of a legitimate federal arrest warrant. It demands or references payment of fees and percentages associated with alleged violations. It contains other information and formatting inconsistent with an authentic federal arrest warrant.
