Thieves impersonate sheriff’s office in new scam sweeping NC

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — Thieves are using an elaborate scheme to steal thousands of dollars from people who made the mistake of answering the phone. They’re calling victims and pretending to be with the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office, and threatening jail time if they don’t pay up.

Now, victims are trying to help make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

The scheme is so detailed and it could happen to anyone. Imagine getting a call from what you think is the sheriff’s office, that seems so real you believe you could go to jail.

“They’re using real names, acting as law enforcement officers to intimidate these people out of money,” Lt. Chris Smith said.

Smith, who’s with the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office, said people have been scammed out of thousands of dollars in the last few months.

“Law enforcement would never call you on the phone and tell you you owe money and solicit you to go to a bitcoin ATM,” Smith said.

But that is exactly what happened to Tom Cook. He is the owner of Tutti’s, a local Italian market and deli.

“It was a number from the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office,” Cook said. “They left a voicemail, they had my name, my number, my address.”

“The scam is that I missed jury duty and because of that, I had three pending felonies that I had to address that day,” he said. “They were coming to pick me up or I had a two-hour window to address the issue.”

The scammers gave detailed instructions. Cook took out thousands of dollars from the bank and drove to the address scammers provided to deposit the money, all while he was forced to stay on the phone.

“They threaten that if you do disconnect, I would be picked up immediately and thrown into jail,” he said.

Luckily, Cook stopped the deposit when he realized he was at a bitcoin ATM.

“That was the biggest red flag for me,” he said. “I actually called the man angry over at that point and said ‘has anyone done anything like this?’ I’m on the phone and I feel like I’m getting scammed and he was like ‘hang up.’”

“I want other people to know that’s something they could be aware of and how to avoid it,” Cook said.

Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz talked to another victim who told her she lost a few thousand dollars, only realizing what happened halfway through the deposit. They said to remember that they will never call and ask for money.

If you think this is happening to you, hang up and physically dial the number of the sheriff’s office to verify. Don’t just click on the number that called you.

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