SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is warning people of scammers impersonating law enforcement to get money or personal information.
According to SCSO, scammers recently called someone from a spoofed number made to look like the SCSO main phone line. The callers then claimed to be a sergeant with the sheriff’s office and demanded a call back.
The callers claim there is an emergency legal situation, such as missed jury duty or legal documents, and try to use threats or intimidate to get someone to pay using prepaid credit cards, cryptocurrency or other forms of payment.
SCSO said this is a scam and law enforcement or government agencies will not call or email you demanding immediate payments under the threat of arrest or other penalties.
If you do fall for these scams, recovering the money and prosecuting criminals is often difficult or impossible, since many of these callers come from outside the United States.
SCSO said if you aren’t sure if a call you received is a scam or not, look up the agency’s phone number online and call that number instead of the one the scammer provides.
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