HCSO: Thousands of dollars lost recently by two phone scam victims

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) has been getting an increasing number of reports about scam phone calls the past week, most of them related to something that’s been around a long time: missed jury duty. And two people report losing thousands of dollars to the scammers.

HCSO FACEBOOK POST:

“It’s an old scam, but apparently, it’s working. We know of two victims who lost thousands of dollars because a phone caller demanded payment over the phone, telling the victims they ignored a jury duty summons, and they would be arrested if they didn’t pay up immediately. The scammers often identify themselves with legitimate officer names (which they likely pull from social media) to further confuse victims.

“Again, ๐ฐ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ซ ๐š ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ for your safety:

โ€ขIf there is a warrant for your arrest, a deputy with our Warrant Service Unit will visit you in person. ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’†๐’“๐’† ๐’˜๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’๐’ ๐’‘๐’‰๐’๐’๐’† ๐’„๐’‚๐’๐’!

โ€ขIf you miss jury duty, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐›๐ž ๐š๐ซ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐!

โ€ขIf you get a call from an unknown number, ๐๐จ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ!

โ€ขIf you get a call from a number that appears to be from the Hall County Sheriffโ€™s Office, use caution! Scammers can spoof an ID on a phone number. Again, we will not call you unprompted! 

๐…๐ข๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ: We know most of you are savvy enough to avoid these crimes, but so many others are not. Anyone can fall victim to scammers if they are unaware of how they operate, so help us by educating your family and friends. You can start by sharing this post.”