“None of that’s true,” said Jones. “Just hang-up on them … and don’t tell them anything.”
Jones said his dispatch center has received calls over the past five to eight days about a “Sgt. Owens” from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office calling residents and saying if they don’t call back, the office will take legal action.
Unfortunately, Jones said there’s nothing his office can do about it as the suspects are “somewhere overseas.” He said they tend to prey on the elderly.
Similar scams may include claims that a loved one is in jail and needs bail money, or that the caller is from a federal agency, like the IRS, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The caller might ask targets to buy gift cards or a prepaid credit card and then ask for the card numbers.
The scammers might also ask targets to stay on the phone while they make the purchase.
The Federal Trade Commission said law enforcement departments, courts or the federal government will not call asking for that kind of payment. A prepaid card, or a gift card, is just like cash and “once the money is gone, you can’t get it back,” according to the FTC.
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The FTC also said caller ID isn’t foolproof as scammers can call from numbers resembling a police or sheriff’s department number.
This is the second reported time a "Sgt. Owens" tried to scam money from county residents. In 2017, Jones reported that a county resident paid a scammer $1,300 after receiving a call from a "Sgt. Owens" for failing to appear for jury duty and owing a surety bond.
Jones said the scammers are using real names of law enforcement officers, and he has two people named Owens on his staff.
The sheriff said these scams are successful because many people pay off the scammers out of fear of trouble with law enforcement or agencies.
“There are people all over the country that’s been ripped off (by similar scams). They get them to send thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars,” Jones said. “We will not call to solicit for money or arrest warrants.”
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