SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. – Nathan Murphy received a suspicious phone call where the caller said he was from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO).
“The scammer informed me there was a warrant out for my arrest. I had missed jury duty. They heightened the panic mode. ‘You’re going to be arrested. You have to stay in jail.’ Or, and this is where the trick came in, you can pay that bill upfront and they’ll send you to a bail bondsman or whatever,” Murphy said.
The price of the “bill” was $7500.
Murphy told NonStop Local that the caller sounded very official.
“It was a private number that came through, and that was weird. I kind of inquired about that. And he was like, ‘Because [of] the situation of fleeing…you’re not gonna answer a Sheriff number’,” Murphy said. “But then, they said ‘Do you need validation?’…I said ‘yes’… So, they spoof the Sheriff’s Office [phone number], call you from it and then they have another individual on the other end of that line that start talking with you and verifying [the] ‘deputy’.”
They even sent Murphy a fake warrant for his arrest.
After an hour of talking over the phone, he realized nothing was adding up and this was a scam.
SCSO told NonStop Local that these scams are common across America.
The scams can be anything from “missing jury duty,” to unpaid parking tickets” or “warrants.”
Liberty Lake Police told NonStop Local that scammers mask phone numbers and pose as law enforcement agencies like SCSO or Crime Check.
SCSO added that no reputable agency will ever threaten or ask for money over the phone.
If you do receive questionable or suspicious scam calls, you’re encouraged to contact Crime Check.
