Ocean County among areas targeted by advanced call/text scam
The text part of the scam features a fraudulent arrest warrant document, and it's personalized with the resident’s name.
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The Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, along with many around the country, are sounding the alarm on the latest round of phone scams targeting vulnerable populations and how scammers are upping their game.
“They target a lot of senior citizens," said Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy. "Of course, we have a large population of senior citizens in Ocean County.”
There’s a combined call and text scam tactic that has recently made a presence in Ocean County, and the sheriff's office posted an example on Facebook to educate its residents.
The text part of the scam features a fraudulent arrest warrant document, and it's personalized with the resident’s name. The caller claimed to be a captain from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office and demanded thousands in cash over two outstanding warrants for “Failure to Appear.”
Sheriff Mastronardy warns they would never call or text about a warrant. If you take a closer look, things are also missing from the fake document.
“So there’s no phone number, right,” said Sheriff Mastronardy. “So how do you contact them?
When in doubt, the sheriff’s office encourages residents to call their local police or their office before engaging in any activity.
“That’s the bottom line, you’ve got to have common sense," said the sheriff. "If you didn’t do anything wrong, the courts aren’t coming to look for you.”
He says scammers are doing their research, even searching records of people who’ve been to court and taking officers' names right off the website.
