MARSHALL COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a fake warrant scam that is once again being reported.
“For whatever reason, this weekend, it really picked up,” Sheriff Phil Sims told News 19.
Sunday, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) posted to Facebook to warn people about the scam.
Sheriff Phil Sims told News 19 that scammers will call people and pose as a Sheriff’s Deputy. The scammers will then tell the person who answers the phone that there is a warrant out for their arrest for failing to appear or not paying a traffic offense.
Sheriff Sims said scammers are using spoofing apps to make it seem like the calls are coming from the Sheriff’s Office, and that adds to the level of believability.
“What they do is they take the number they’re calling from and disguise it, or mask it with a legitimate number,” Sims said. “A lot of times it’s a government agency like us, and then when that person calls that number back from our caller I.D., the actual agency will pick up and make it look like it’s a legitimate phone call.”
Sims said there were several reports of this scam over the weekend, and, “unfortunately we have had people fall for this.”
Part of the scam includes the scammers asking for payment over the phone, to avoid “being arrested”. Sims said MCSO will never ask people to pay over the phone.
“We will never call and try to get you to make, pay money over the phone, to avoid going to jail,” Sims said. “That will never happen with our agency or any other legitimate agency” he added.
In addition to phone scams, the Sheriff said to be aware of other scams this holiday season.
“If it sounds farfetched it probably is,” he said. “It’s probably going to be a scam.”
He also reminded people to be careful with their holiday package deliveries.
“Watch out for porch pirates,” he said. “They are going to be probably in full swing between now and the holidays. If you have any incidents with those, please give us a call, too.”
You can make an incident report in person at the Sheriff’s Office, or you can report a Crime Tip online.
