Officer Clarinda Carter, inmate Covian Camp accused of running phone scam from Georgia jail

Two people are behind bars for allegedly duping people in almost a dozen states with a lucrative phone scam. Investigators say they were running the elaborate scam from the unlikeliest of places -

News 12 Staff

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May 21, 2014, 4:32 AM

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Updated 3,768 days ago

Two people are behind bars for allegedly duping people in almost a dozen states with a lucrative phone scam.

Investigators say they were running the elaborate scam from the unlikeliest of places - a state prison.

Clarinda Carter is a correctional officer at a state prison in Georgia, where Covian Camp is an inmate.

Hundreds of inmates were allegedly involved in the scheme. Some of them had commissary accounts with more than $200,000 in them.

Authorities say the suspects called people in 11 states, including New Jersey, posing as sheriff's officers. They told them they had to pay a fine for missing jury duty.

"They would tell victims in lieu of being arrested, they had to provide credit card information and bank information and load money onto debit cards or prepaid cards, like Green Dot Money Packs," says Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino.

Camp and Carter are charged with theft by extortion and impersonating an officer.