Bold scammer targets Jones County Sheriff’s Office amid rising scam reports
Scammers claim to be anything from a utility or software company, to a doctor’s office or financial institution. If a call seems suspicious, it's likely a scam.
GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Scams are getting more sophisticated, and anybody can fall victim to one. With a recent increase in reports of phone, text and email scams, the Jones County Sheriff’s Office wants residents to be on guard.
What started out as a normal phone call raised suspicion for Chief Deputy Sheriff Earl Humphries at the Jones County Sheriff’s Office.
He says he received a call from a woman asking if the sheriff’s office wanted to sponsor the Jones County High School basketball team, but the call raised a few red flags.
“She couldn’t answer any of the questions about who or what was involved at the local level here,” Humphries explained.
Chief Deputy Humphries says he didn’t recognize the caller’s phone number and told her to contact the sheriff’s office by email, but he never heard back from the caller.
What made the call convincing was that the Jones County Sheriff’s Office does sponsor local athletics, but when Humpries reached out to the high school, it confirmed the call was not legitimate.
“It’s like every other scam–if it sounds too good to be true, it is,” Humphries explained. “Just do your due diligence. It took all of 30 seconds to check on it and make sure.”
According to Lieutenant Kenny Gleaton, the Jones County Sheriff’s Office receives two to three reports of scams each week.
He says scammers claim to be a trusted source like a utility or software company, law enforcement agency, loved one, a doctor’s office or a financial institution.
“If these folks are purporting to be an entity you’ve already dealt with, yet they’re asking for personal information, that needs to be a red flag,” he said.
Lieutenant Gleaton says you should never provide personal information like a bank account number over the phone. He recommends checking in with elderly loved ones to see if they have noticed any suspicious financial activity.
At Robins Financial Credit Union, Risk Manager Cassy Rozier says if you’re not sure that a call or email is legitimate, you can always check with an institution to make sure they contacted you.
“We do occasionally reach out through email,” she said. “It is important to know that we will not put a link in that email. We’re not going to ask you to click on anything.”
Rozier explained that most banks have a fraud monitoring service that will notify you of suspicious activity on your card or account.
She says most banks work closely with law enforcement to recover funds if your bank account is hacked.
That’s why Lieutenant Gleaton says it’s important to file a police report if you have been the victim of a scam. He encourages anyone who suspects they have been contacted by a scammer to provide all available information to law enforcement.
You can follow scam trends by checking the Jones County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page or by downloading the sheriff’s office’s mobile app.
