PSA and an idea for some deterrence: Phone Scammers

quote:

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Before you say she was just stupid, this woman is a retired Navy officer

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Not to sound too crass, but anyone who falls for this needs to give up control of their finances to a trusted family member.

Also, I'm not sure being a retired Navy officer is necessarily associated with high intelligence.

It’s 2026. If your number isn’t saved in my phone, I’m not answering.

they got my wife with this a couple weeks back.

luckily i recognized it as non-sense and calmed her down. she told him to call me and explain it. he did, i called his bluff, said some other choice words/phrases to him, asked him to meet me at Sonic, etc, etc. He hung up and never called me or her again.

for anyone this happens to anyone, for your own piece of mind:
call your local sheriff's office.
call your local country/parish clerk.
ask if there is a warrant out for your arrest.
if there isn't, you have nothing to worry about.

the sheriff's office flat out told me they get this a couple times a week and he assured me that this is not how it would work in reality.
basically, they would never ever call you and demand payment or you'll be arrested under any circumstance.

this is how the scam works:
> They claim you missed jury duty, a toll fine, etc and threaten arrest/jail if you don’t comply.
> They demand payment instantly (often prepaid cards, wire transfer, crypto).
> They may spoof caller ID or use real names/badge numbers to appear legitimate.
> Some even threaten you not to tell anyone; that’s a classic high-pressure scam tactic to isolate you.
> No real court or federal agency will ever demand payment or threaten “federal charges” over an unsolicited phone call.


there's plenty of articles online showing this is a growing problem:
United States Courts: Juror Scams

FTC Consumer Advice: call or email saying you missed jury duty and need to pay? It's a scam

A friend who is an educated professional and interacts with the Sheriff Office multiple times during the week, fell for it to the tune of $3000.
Only AFTER she deposited the cash in a Bitcoin machine did she question he actions and call me.
She thought that since she was on camera placing the money in the machine, that the cops would get it back for her.
She filed a report but will never see that $3k again.

My parents have had to change their credit cars x2 now due to getting scammed.

My in laws almost fell for it, but for my wife being there at the time of the call and having to latterly yell at her dad multiple times to hang up the phone...

my mom constantly fall s for the "amazon order text" she has no amazon account, we order the things for her on our account and have it delivered to her house. we have told her multiple times amazon will not contact her and they do not have her number......

EDIT: both sets of parent is the mid to upper 70s

I got this same phone call a while back. They said I had two warrants out for my arrest with Rapides Parish Sherriff's office. One was for failure to appear in court and the other contempt of court. I listened to his speel for a bit, then hung up on him, and called RPSA (once I noticed the numbers weren't the same) and asked them if I had any warrants and they said no. He quickly called me right back once he figured out I hung up and then I told him what I did and he hung up

These scammers are getting better and better. I set up an appointment with Cox to transfer services to my new home. About two hours after I set the appointment, I got a call and a text from Jen from Cox who needed to confirm some details with me. Considering I just made the appointment with Cox, it seemed completely legitimate, but because I’m extremely cautious I researched and found it was a common scam. Apparently someone has hacked access to Cox records and is using that to try and scam people.

the cops, and i knew it was the real cops, called me one day to come turn myself in for trespassing. I didn't even know i was trespassing, I was with a person that said we could be where we were photographed. I told the cops they could come kick my door in and drag me in shackles. They gave me the ole warrant talk and all that. Never heard from them again. I guess the landowner got over it. I find it hard to believe that people fall for this shite.