CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A mother is warning people to be very careful when trying to bond their loved ones out of jail.
Lisa Flagg spent $1,000 trying to get her son out, but it didn’t go to the bail bonding company.
She says it went to a scammer.
“Like this person don’t have a conscious,” she told Channel 2’s Tom Jones on Channel 2 Action News at 6.
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It was right before the Fourth of July holiday when officers arrested her son in Clayton County. Flagg said someone who said they were from Free At Last Bail Bonds said they could get him out that night.
She just had to send money to his assistant via PayPal.
“He told me to send $475 to her,” the mother said.
He called back and said she needed to send more money for an ankle monitor.
“He said that ankle monitor is $300 for the monitor. $210 for somebody to watch it,” Flagg said.
She sent a total of $1,000.
The next morning the scammer wanted more money, saying her son damaged county property at the jail.
“I said sir, I am done,” she said. “I’m not paying nothing else.”
A couple of days later, she found out her son was out of jail and didn’t have an ankle monitor.
She went to Free At Last and wanted to know what was going on. Someone there told her she didn’t bond her son out. His girlfriend did.
“She said I know. You’ve been scammed,” Flagg said.
“And we’ve seen a rise in it,” Gara Dallam with Free At Last Bail Bonds said.
He says they have seen an uptick in scammers using their name to rip people off. Dallam says they have added a fraud alert on their website and alerted sheriffs about what’s going on.
He warns people if someone calls saying they are from Free At Last to do one thing: “Hang up and call us right back.”
Flagg also urges people to hang up.
“If you want to get your family out, go in the bail company,” she said. “Go inside.”
Darrah says if your loved one or an attorney didn’t tell you Free At Last would be calling, hang up. Or come into the office.
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