(photo courtesy Stuart Miles and freedigitalphotos.net)

Please be aware your phone calls, texts message, voice mails and emails are often made from SCAMMERS.  The only goal of these people is to convince you that something is going on and they are willing to help you.  Build a little trust and manipulate you to obtain your personal identifiers, banking information or even instruct you to go to a retail location and buy some type of card you can give the card numbers on (so they can get fast cash) and HELP you.

A popular SCAM is messages or emails claiming a purchase has been made on your AMAZON account that is suspicious.  We had a local citizen fall for this and unfortunately got into the victim's bank account and now the victim is out upwards of $50,000 dollars!  There are many many other scams going around.

There is almost no chance of ever getting these people identified, money seized or criminal charges as these calls originate from overseas.  The people make millions off of their victims and they keep coming up with new stories and ways to get people to believe they are legit.  They spoof their phone numbers to appear they are local or in the United States.

Best advice is to hang up on these creeps, do your business with those you know and you verify through other means as being legitimate. 

If you have been a victim of this type of crime, meaning if you were scammed out of money or your identity you should report this to your local law enforcement.  If you merely received a call, email, or text and did nothing with it there is NO need to report to law enforcement.

It is your money so please keep it safe.   It is very sickening to see what these crimes do to some very kind and good people. 

Please share this press release and post with family, friends, and co-workers.

Thank you,

Sheriff Steve Cox