CALIFORNIA—On Tuesday, July 30, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced on their Facebook page a scam that the public should be aware of.
The LASD reported that scammers will call residents and tell them they are Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) personnel (deputy, sergeant, detective, etc.) and demand payment of a fine for failing to respond to a jury duty summons or an outstanding warrant.
In fear of being arrested, victims are scammed into making payments in the form of gift cards, Bitcoin, or pre-paid credit cards. The scammers use a fraudulent sense of emergency and pressure to coerce hard-earned money from unsuspecting people, many of them elderly.
In some cases, the scammers will use the names of real LASD personnel. Anyone who receives a demand for payment by telephone, email or other means of communication, to be made in any form for any reason, from someone claiming to be a LASD employee, DO NOT comply. LASD personnel will NEVER ask for payment over the phone or by email.
Anyone who may have been a victim of such a crime is asked to contact their local law enforcement agency and report the incident. The public is asked to visit the Scam Spoofing Apps Impersonating LA County Deputies (Lasd.org) for tips to identify a potential threat-based impersonation scam and how to prevent from falling prey to this scam or similar scams.
