CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a new scam that involves someone impersonating a police officer and people on the North Carolina sex offender registry.
According to the sheriff’s office, several people have reported that they were contacted by someone saying they were with the Lenoir Police Department. The person said that some sex offenders were violating their requirements and that if they brought the offender into the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, they would receive a check for $5,000. The caller said the resident had to send them money on gift cards first and would be reimbursed.
I’ve run into this type of scam before. The first time the twerp impersonated a county sheriff’s office detective and wanted cash. I told him I would meet him in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office. That ended that call quite quickly. The second time I didn’t even bother calling back the crook. The thing to remember about law enforcement is that if you have a warrant out for your arrest, they will not call you first. They just come and get you.
If you have an iPhone, you can tell if a call came from a verified phone number local to the location given if there is a checkmark next to the entry in the incoming calls log. If there is no check, it’s possible it was a spoofed location, and it’s very unlikely a call coming from a government line would not have the check mark. The scammers are good at spoofing locations to appear local, but their calls, in my experience, always fail this test. Android might have a similar feature. I simply don’t answer and calls or return calls not from a number verified to be associated with its listed location.
I’m in California and I now get calls like this at a rate of about once a month. The last few, I’ve started to mess back at them when they call.
However, this particular scam is concerning. It sounds like they are also playing into peoples’ thirst for vigilantism. The end result, if it goes as planned, is that the scammer gets paid and you get kidnapped.
Isn’t it so nice of the government to traffic its citizens? Instigate, provoke, even promote, so many crimes and different forms of this cruel and unusual punishment …All while hiding behind the safety shield of their SORA racket! Inciting violence is a crime, even when it’s the legislative branch doing it. KNOWINGLY
This could be avoided if there were rules that the registration department (police, sheriff) should have to follow in contacting registrants with regard to their status. Most important is that all official communications, directives, and potential violations should be directed through postal mail from the department itself, if not a direct visit by the authorities to the person himself. Emphasize that the department will NEVER call, text, or email any registrant with directives or with monetary threats.
In short, make sure that the registrant is empowered with the knowledge that he/she can safely ignore (or better yet, report) any telephonic directions give to them by non-verifiable phone or digital contacts. While to most of us it seems obvious, remember that the current emotional component of the average registrant is already on a hair trigger, and with any threat by a perceived authority can override the logical thinking that would preclude being taken in by scammers. Knowing the rules the department must engage in would be significant in overcoming this trigger reflex that could result in a calamitous loss of money.
I would even go so far as to have this type of bill introduced in the state legislature that mandates disclosure by registration officers of such rules, and for the department to follow the rules.
What a surprise!😒 This telephone scam has worked so successfully against vulnerable Registrants that the scammers (🤬) have decided to expand it to a much larger public population!!:
U.S. Marshals Service warns of nationwide scam