WARRANT SCAM– Sheriff’s Office and Everett PD Send Out an Alert

An email is being circulated by the Everett Police Department’s Crime Prevention Officer in cooperation with the Sheriff’s Office warning of callers demanding immediate payment for alleged warrants or criminal charges.

This appears to be the Warrant/Jury scam coming around again. The email urges the reader to hang up the phone if they receive this call. It points out that the scammer wants immediate payment with a pre-paid cash card, a major feature of this scam. The pre-paid cards are untraceable and therefore the perfect way for a scammer to bully money out of an unsuspecting victim.

The email lists four pre-paid cards that are commonly used in this scam:

·         Green Dot’s Money Pak

·         Incomm’s Vanilla Reload

·         Blackhawk’s Reloadit

·         Bancorp’s Netspend

 

The email warns that the list is not all inclusive, that there may be other cards wanted by the scammers.

Attached to the email is a .pdf with the following message:

 

 

You can make copies (the message is repeated four times on a page) and give them to your friends, neighbors or family. While this and similar scams have received much publicity (especially by this blog), scammers still feel it worthwhile to make the calls. Email me if you would like the .pdf document.

Thanks to Isabel for the tip.

 

Federal Trade Commission:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/scammers-impersonate-police

 

AARP Fraud Watch Network:

http://blog.aarp.org/2014/04/11/fear-is-back-jury-duty-other-intimidation-scams-return/