The Greene County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public about a new phone call scam circulating throughout West Central Illinois in which scammers spoof legitimate phone numbers.
On Tuesday, the Greene County Sheriff’s Office took a report from a Carrollton couple, who had been contacted by telephone by a potential scammer. The scammer first contacted the couple from a phone number that was out of the area and unfamiliar to them. When the couple did not speak to them, the scammer contacted them again by phone, which indicated that the call was coming from the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
When the couple answered the phone, the scammer, using the name of an actual member of the Sheriff’s Office, told the couple that they were the target of a drug investigation. The couple quickly realized that this was a scam, due to the foreign accent of the caller. The scammer had personal information about the couple, which may have been obtained from their Facebook profiles.
The Sheriff Office advises the public that the scammers use devices to make their calls look like they are from legitimate numbers. The Sheriff’s Office says that law enforcement does not contact people by phone, text, email, or use social media to notify you that you are the target of a criminal investigation or have a warrant for your arrest, nor will they solicit personal financial information from you using one of these types of communication.
The Sheriff’s Office also advises people to simply hang up the phone if you feel uncomfortable at any point in time and then call the Sheriff’s Office on your own to legitimize the call.