If it sounds too good to be true – especially if it has to do with getting an arrest warrant dismissed by paying to make it go away – it more than likely is.
That’s the message that the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office has to residents of San Joaquin County after reports started coming in that scammers were using the agency’s name in an attempt to get residents to fork over money to make warrants disappear.
While it isn’t the first time that such a scam has been attempted, the additional untraceable ways that they’re seeking payment – including through cryptocurrency – makes the likelihood of recovering the funds once they’ve been sent extremely unlikely.
“Law Enforcement will never call you to tell you about your warrant, and we’ll definitely never try to get you to pay us to make it go away,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Warrants are signed by a judge, and that judge wants to see you in person!”
While things like prepaid gift cards and credit cards – those paying are asked to send the details over the phone – are commonly used in such scams to avoid being traced, the inclusion of cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, DogeCoin, etc.) makes it even more difficult for law enforcement to attempt to catch the people perpetrating these scams.
The sheriff’s office recommends a healthy dose of skepticism whenever a request to pay by untraceable means come across – whether that’s through prepaid cards, cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer apps like Zelle, CashApp, and Venmo, or wire services such as Western Union or MoneyGram.
And being able to determine whether it’s a scam or not is getting more difficult thanks to phone number spoofing – allowing the scammers to make it appear like they’re actually calling from the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office by having he phone number appear in the Caller ID screen.
Anybody that thinks that they may have a warrant for their arrest and wants to begin the process of clearing it up is encouraged to contact the San Joaquin County Superior Court at 209.239.1316.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
