Callers impersonate BCSO deputies, IRS agents; demand immediate payments
By Mike McCombs
The Island News
If someone contacts you by phone or text and tells you they are a law enforcement officer and you need to send them money to avoid arrest, by no means should you give them any money.
According to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), a scam has been used locally where fraudsters are impersonating law enforcement officers.
The BCSO has recently received several calls from community members reporting they have been solicited by a person representing the Sheriff’s Office for payment of fines or penalties related to missed jury duty or some other legal obligation.
The scammer typically asks the victim to come to the Sheriff’s Office to pay a fine, but ultimately re-directs them to a local business to obtain an another method of payment (gift cards of some sort, or even in a recent case, Bitcoin). The scammer uses threats of arrest if they actually appear in person at the office but suggests they will accept the gift card payment over the phone.
“Our stance is as law enforcement, we do not collect penalties or fines. That is up to the court,” said Maj. Angela Viens, spokesperson for the BCSO. “We will never call and solicit money from you. Nor will any vendor (for the court). They’re not going to call you and solicit fines. There is a method for paying penalties and fines on their website.”
Viens said if someone receives a call like this, they should simply hang up.
“If there’s ever a question, just give us a call,” Viens said. “And by all means, don’t give them any banking information.”
Last week, a scam artist posing as a BCSO deputy convinced a St. Helena Island woman that “she had missed a federal jury duty summons and was now facing arrest,” according to an incident report. To avoid any potential penalties, the woman’s husband “went to Food Lion and used a Bitcoin machine to send the suspect $4,520.”
According to the report, the man realized it was a scam when the suspect and his “major” tried to get more money out of him while he was still at the machine.
According to a report filed Sunday, a man claiming to be a BCSO deputy called a Lady’s Island woman and told her she had three outstanding warrants for missing jury duty. The woman said she spoke to two separate people on the phone, realizing it was a scam when the two men asked for two different amounts of money. But it was not before she had already lost a total of $600.
“The scammers are very innovative,” Viens said. “It’s always, ‘you’re going to be arrested’ or ‘there’s going to be a warrant out for you.’ They accomplish their scams by threats. They’ll suggest you get a gift card or Green Dot cards. They will stay on the phone until you have the card in hand, then you give them the number and they hang up.”
And just because you avoid this scam doesn’t mean the next one isn’t already here.
“If you look on our Facebook page, there is another scam,” Viens said. “People posing as IRS agents call citizens or businesses, wanting people to pay penalties.”
According to the IRS, callers make aggressive calls posing as IRS agents, using fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers in hopes of stealing taxpayer money or personal information. They may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling.
Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a gift card or wire transfer. Victims may be threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license.
Over the weekend, the IRS received a report from a Beaufort County business similar to the IRS impersonation phone scam. The business is out more than $1,000.
Like law enforcement, the IRS does not call to demand immediate payment. Generally, the IRS will mail you a bill if you owe any taxes.
The IRS does not threaten to have you arrested for not paying, demand payment without giving you the opportunity to appeal the amount it says you owe or ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
The IRS and the BCSO emphasize, if you feel like you’ve been a victim of a scam, report it to local law enforcement. And stay vigilant. Scammers are constantly coming up with new and clever scams.
“There’s always a variety,” Viens said. “There’s always something new.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
