COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — A local man says he had thousands of dollars stolen from him by someone claiming to be from the sheriff’s office, threatening him with jail time for missing jury duty.
The man, who only wanted to be identified as Matthew, received a phone call from a person who claimed to be with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, stating that he had missed grand jury duty and faced jail time unless he prepaid a bond.
“There’s no agency that I’m aware of that will call on the phone and tell you that you have a warrant, and if you don’t pay some money, then the warrant will go away,” said Captain Jason Wood of the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.
Matthew told Channel 2 Action News the crooks gave him two options: turn himself in or prepay his bond, which he says amounted to over $7,000. Police scanners in the background, the names and badge numbers, and the detailed information the scammers had about Matthew made the scam convincing.
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When Matthew asked for proof, he was told a captain would call from the number listed on the sheriff’s website, which he received, further convincing him of the scam’s legitimacy.
“At that point, that was good enough for me,” said Matthew.
Matthew sent the money via Zelle and Apple Pay, fearing the consequences of being arrested, “Having never been arrested or incarcerated or anything, I didn’t want to find out at 45 what that’s like.”
Matthew says that after being on the phone for over an hour, the crooks said he still owed more money. He says he was texting with his wife at this same time, and she called a few sheriff departments. They informed her that this was a big scam going on right now.
He then told the caller he had no more money. When they put him on hold, he was able to call the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office from another phone line to try and figure out what was going on. He says they informed him that he was not on the phone with anyone from their department, and they don’t do any bench warrants over the phone.
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“It’s been a real tough week. ”You know the bills don’t stop coming,” Matthew explained how losing that much cash has affected his family.
Wood warns that if you receive a call demanding money from someone claiming to be with a sheriff’s office, you should hang up and call them yourself to verify.
“Just the shame of all that was, you know, it hit me like a ton of bricks once I found out. So that was really tough,” said Matthew.
He reached out to WSB-TV to help warn others and says he felt like he was asking all the right questions to try and verify the legitimacy of the call. He was able to recover some of the money through Zelle, but the rest may be lost.
Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard wants what happened to Matthew to serve as a warning for others.
The key rule to follow here is, “Never, never, never answer your phone if it’s not a family member or friend. Let everything else go to voicemail,” Clark Howard explained. This is one way to avoid almost all scams and prevent someone from stealing your hard-earned money.
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