UPDATED WITH RECORDING: Member Contribution: Scam Reminder
HERE IS THE MESSAGE:
Please post this for all to see. Even though I am acutely aware of scams, and this one in particular, when you get one of these calls, it’s easy to start to panic.
Here is what happened:
The phone rang, my wife answered and came to me to say “the Sheriff is on the phone.” I picked up the call and heard this:
Hello, Mr. _______, (he knew my first name, middle initial, and last name) this is Deputy Shane Bailey with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department. The reason for my call is that you missed your appointment to report in at the beginning of March, and I am following up before we have to take serious action. There are two detainers outstanding on you, 1) for failure to appear and 2) failure to update your registration. He then told me that I had signed for a registered letter in March stating my need to report because the Federal Government had instituted a new requirement for registration, including new fingerprints and DNA testing, because of this Covid-19 epidemic. Although I should have just hung up, I found myself responding to questions. I denied getting the letter and he then said that since his records showed I signed for it, I would have to arrange to post a fee to avoid being arrested and detained. At that point, I calmed down because I realized this was the scam call I had been warned about by FAC.
If you get one of these calls, the best thing is to just hang up.
Here are the details of the call I received:
Caller ID 561-295-8005
Deputy Shane Bailey, Badge # 384767.
Supervisor name: Lt. Terry Lee
Said he was calling from home but was assigned to 3228 Gun Club Rd. station.
I know my reaction was based on the lingering fear we all have and will have as long as there is a registry, especially one that is open to the public.
TG FAC has kept me educated and aware of these issues.
Let me take this opportunity to urge you to become a member of FAC if you are not currently one. If you are, please consider making an additional contribution to one of the campaigns. I recently upped my monthly contribution to $20 from $5, and today I will make another separate donation as a way of saying thanks to FAC for being our support and lifeline.
Please everyone stay safe. It is more challenging now than ever.
Richard R.
Here is a suggestion and what I do. I have not answered an “unknown” phone call in years. What I mean by that is that if the call is not from a “contact” I simply let it go to directly to voicemail.
If you do that you will most likely NOT get a fake message left for a couple of reasons: mainly because these scams rely on intimidation and threats which they can do very well if they get you on the phone but NOT so much leaving a voicemail.
Have I been contacted by the actual police via voicemail. Certainly and many other legitimate calls as well and after verifying the phone number I have returned the call. No problem.
My point is that if you use the caller ID function of your smartphone you will have a very effective protective barrier between you and those who would use the phone to scam you. It works very well.
I received the call on my landline which I maintain for business.
Richard, that same thing happened to me about three weeks ago and. They way you worded your letter to F. A.C. is almost word for word what the p.o.s. said to me.
So when he got to the point for the phone call to me, I told him that I’d been warned about a scam that gos just like this phone call to me. He asked me how did I or where did I hear about a scam targeting registered citizens? That’s when I told him about F.A.C. informing me a short time ago about the scam…I told him” it sounds just like the things you are telling me now.
He then says, well that trust will cause you to be out of compliance and cause you to be arrested. I said, if I’m making a mistake now I’m going to have to side with the information that I got from fac. I then close this conversation with…if u want I can be there first thing in the morning.. or u can come out to my home and arrest me. With that, I hung up.
Never thought it would happen to me…I thank God that F.A.C. had the foresight to post about this scam so I was prepared.
Same thing happened to me today. April 6. Used the same name, officer Shane Bailey. Such a long call and their speech and words I realized right away that they were not law enforcement officers.
They wanted me to stay on the way and going to Walmart and get a google card and give them the number right away for the “fine“.
Obviously no court or law-enforcement authority works that way.
Just beware out there. And use common sense
That same person posing as Chief Deputy Boyd from the Broward County Sheriffs office is attempting to pull the same scam. Beware
Robert, I hope that you filed a police report. If not, you definitely should.