Local

Fake cop tricks people into paying hundreds to avoid criminal charges

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Someone in Rock Hill is posing as a police officer and then stealing hundreds of dollars from people by telling them they've broken the law.

Police are concerned because someone is claiming to be one of their own, then ripping people off.

So far in two cases, a caller has introduced himself as Lt. Gary Fields, of the Rock Hill Police Department. 

In each case, the caller told the victim that police have an arrest warrant out for the victim for failure to show up for jury duty. Then he said he will take care of it if the victim will put $300 on a Green Dot MoneyPak card and send it to a specific account.The victim was then told to send the money from a CVS store on Celanese Road, in Rock Hill.

Both people went ahead and sent the money. Eyewitness News learned there is no Officer Gary Fields with the Police Department.

Channel 9 called the number on the police report to try to talk to the mystery caller. He answered by saying, "Warrants division," then hung up when learning that reporter Greg Suskin was on the phone.

A warning on the back of a MoneyPak card alerts users to fraud and says that the cards can be traced.

That's what police are working on right now.

Both victims did call in quickly after getting suspicious.

"I think these people, as soon as they knew they were scammed, they called us right away," Bollinger said.

However, they didn't call before sending all that money.  With one phone call to dispatch, they could've learned that Fields is not a police officer in Rock Hill. They also could've found out if there were really any warrants on them.