The following is a news release from the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office.
IDAHO FALLS – These days, our deputies see a wide variety of scams and fraudulent activity on social media, emails, texts and cell phone calls. One of the most common cell phone scams we see are suspects pretending to be law enforcement or an officer of the courts trying to convince the victims they missed a court hearing, jury duty, or have warrants for their arrest. Some suspects are using technology that shows the actual phone number of local law enforcement on your caller ID, utilizing a fake voice mail system to route return calls to various divisions of your local police agency, and using similar names of actual local personnel to seem authentic.
Ultimately, the goal is to convince the victims they are facing arrest or jail time for a variety of reasons, until they get to a point where it can be taken care of over the phone by paying money. The method can be anything from asking for debit or credit card numbers, to having victims go to area retail stores to get gift cards or money cards and providing the numbers over the phone. Most times, the victims are told the card numbers given did not work and they need to get a different one or try again, which results in even more money being taken by the suspects at the expense of the victim.
While our deputies and local law enforcement often call people by phone to talk about pending issues or cases, there is never a time when money is…
