The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office says it is receiving a high volume of reports about a phone scam in which the scammers impersonate sheriff’s deputies.
The scammers tell the people they contact that they have missed a federal grand jury summons, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release issued Thursday, Oct. 17.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the scammers then direct their victims to withdraw funds from their bank, buy gift cards, and provide the cards’ redemption codes to the scammers.
Cybersecurity firm McAfee explained in a recent blog post that phone scammers prefer gift cards because they can easily be converted into cash and are difficult for law enforcement to trace.
The calls are usually placed from computer-generated or otherwise illegitimate contact numbers for the Sheriff’s Office, the agency said. It noted that real law enforcement officials “DO NOT conduct business in this manner.”
If contacted by a scammer, the Sheriff’s Office advised, people should “pay close attention and not provide any personal or financial information to anyone over the phone.”
Anyone with questions about the validity of a phone call they’ve received from someone claiming to be law enforcement can call the Sheriff’s Office at 774-1444.
