NC: Phone scam targeting persons required to register as sex offenders
[FAC NOTE: We will keep sharing these as a reminder]
A phone scam in Orange County has been targeting registered sex offenders, prompting the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to warn the community about the risks of these calls.
On Nov. 17, the sheriff’s office received two calls alerting them about the scam.
“The person would answer the phone and the caller would say, ‘There’s a warrant out for your arrest, and you’ve failed to appear and comply with a DNA order,’ which is a thing that a sex offender would be familiar with,” Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said. “So a sex offender on the registry is generally very concerned about coming to the attention of law enforcement.”
The scammers would then ask the recipients to meet them in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office and bring $2,000 to someone pretending to be a sergeant.
The officers are so adapt at setting up sting operations. Let us hope they use those skills to entrap these criminals.
must be that time of year, i have received at least 3 calls in the last week
i have come up with a successful response to this
as soon as they mention any type of law enforcement, i politely let them know my attorney has told me not to talk to anyone, i offer to give them my attorney’s phone number.
they always hang up…..lol
That good to your constitutional rights.
Seems to me that if the scammers are having their targets meet them at the SO parking lot, they could catch these clown if they really wanted to.
Dustin
That would be a dream. “meeting in parking lot of sheriffs office”?
You could have some unmarked cars waiting for the creep to show up. Even if they do not care about us, Impersonating an officer is a major felonly.
Yeah, that seems to be way too easy for the actual sheriff’s office to bust these guys for fraud and pretending to be a peace officer, plus government parking garages often have cameras. Of course, the fake officer could just say they were going to a party, “see here is a way to tell it’s not a real uniform,” and if someone comes up to them and just happens to give them money, oh well.
Funny how it says that, “Our courts have taken a real strong stance on non-conviction of non-violent type crimes…” yet there are plenty of sex crimes that fit this criteria.
I’m glad that there is attention to this, but feel that law enforcement truly doesn’t care if a PFR gets scammed.
I loved the comment that it only takes a minute to hang up and call the sheriff’s office to find out if there is a warrant for your arrest. That is such an absurd comment.
Your right bwj they would not say yes or no if you call, just come on in and we can look it up they say they can’t give that info over the phone. My thing is the sheriffs comment that getting a phone call saying you have a warrant or failed to comply with a DNA order is something a sex offender would be familiar with.. I’m sorry if you are complying with the rules and your doing the right thing and trying to live a law abiding life you would not be familiar with calls like this!! That’s why they work we start second guessing ourselves thinking oh sh$t did I miss something ? I don’t want to go back to prison , I better comply We are conditiond to think that way always waiting to be cuffed and stuffed for some bs excuse so the boys with the 5 point stars can pat them selves on the back for the good job they do catching thos rasscally wabbits that forget to add a new piece of info on they’re registration paper work or some other mundane non criminal act or rule violation That would not get anyone else locked up instead of trying to catch thieves murderers Or other criminals. Nope not punishment. By the way just a fun fact in most religons the 5 point star has always been associated with the devil coincidence ?
Very good post. You’re right of course about being conditioned for the worst. When I was on probation I feared an unexpected knock on the door. I lived in a hotel that housed registrants. I saw plenty of raids and random visits from POs and had a couple of roommates dragged off for violations. I am grateful that and Florida is behind me.
Bwj ,Unfortunately I am still dealing with probation And have to deal with it for several more years. When I first got out I was living in a mobile home owned by a former probation officer who had 2 people in each room ,her rules were crazy we were not allowed to have any visitors on the property were not allowed to have pets were not allowed to change the AC/ heat twmp settings. We had probation come in once a month for they’re visit they would come at like 3:00 am wake everybody up then walk thru the house looking in all the rooms . then on Halloween 3 probation officers and 3 deputys would come in and search everybody search the house and look at everybody cell phones it was Usually right at 6:15 since we had to be home by then. I seen several get violated at the house. It was always on the sheriffs list to come check when they were bored
Your situation sounds very similar to mine, and it socks. If it is of any help to you, I had my probation terminated early. I’ll say this for all of us registrants, stay positive and have a goal. Through endurance we conquer.
BWJ
It seems that the right judge has no issues with us getting off probation early, I had the same fortune. But if we stay out of trouble for 31 years past our incident, we still have to have lifetime registration four times a year? And all because it was ruled as non punitive in nature. As my Ex girl friend The church lady use to say “Well isn’t that special”.
Yea I get that. I recently moved out of state. When I came to register for the first time I found that I was sent to the wrong county sheriff by Florida and more impressively Florida still had me listed on paper. I gladly showed my termination papers signed by the judge. And one last thing, in this state I register once a year but have monthly residence checks. So yeah it sticks with us.
To true my brother
No law enforcement in the United states is going to release warrant information over the phone. If they did that, every person with a warrant would call and verify, then take off. As former law enforcement, I 100% agree with that stance.
Luckily, in Florida you can go on the FDLE website and search for outstanding warrants. Having said that, I do not know what time frame they are added to their site so do not expect it to be posted right away.
I have looked on there before when I thought I had a warrant. Nothing was there so I went down to the sheriff’s office and spoke in person and was told no warrants. The reason was, I kept getting cards on my front door from the Sheriff’s office stating they needed to speak to me. I finally found out they wanted to check our security cameras for an incident that happened in the neighborhood.
When I spoke to them finally, they said if my cameras were working they would need to get a copy of the video and I politely told them to contact the alarm company as I have no way of providing that. ( I actually do but they never help me when I am victim of a crime so pack sand )
They’ll be pulling up to our houses next impersonating law enforcement with a fake search warrant just to gain entry and kill us.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Eliminate the registries and these scams will go away.
If this happened to anyone else it’s fraud, yet it happens to a registrant than it’s okay. Law enforcement or I call encroachment at its finest. I bet that nothing will be done about it.
Let’s go Constitutionality and screw bs in this country!!
Brandin
Previously I had compared that to something that has happened to me on several occasions. A lady down the street had her car broken into and 4 patrol units and a crime scene van showed up and spent hours investigating.
A few months later, the windows in my house were shot out. I was told to make a report online. I even told them, even though it doesn’t matter but I am former law enforcement. I ended up having to do the online report. I am sure it went through the shredder or the “Not important file” as months later, even with badgering, no detective ever followed up even though it was promised.
The dispatchers have the info of where all registered persons live so I am assuming that is the first information they see and perhaps a note pops up saying “Low priority address”. And yet sometimes when I get an address verification, the suddenly have the staff to send 3 officers to check on me? In what World does that make sense?
If Anyone Thinks That a Sheriff is an Ally/Supporter/or DEFENDER of a ‘Person Forced to Register’, then, I have a ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ to Sell You!
(Not Inclusive of people like CherokeeJ or other LEO’s who are Gentlemen!)
Truth
Thank you, I am blushing lol
Believe it or not, a friend I had who was a deputy in another department stood by me even after I told him it was best to not get involved because some of the accusations might be true. I had people I never thought would stand by me and others that changed their phone #’s just so I would not call them as a character witness.
When I was on the job, there were three main types of officers. Two of the types I can name the officers and the middle one I cannot.
Type
#1 The officers who made mine and others around them, lives misrable (I can name even 40 years later their names)
#2 The officers or department employees who treated me with respect and honest 100% down home truth, justice and the American way. ( I can only name 3 of them 40 years later)
#3 Those quiet, boring, plain or hide in the shadows, people who were nice but but shy or not people persons ( I can picture them in my head but couldn’t name a single one) They just didn’t stand out .
But to say all law enforcement are jerks is crazy. Since being on the registry I had a deputy who after pulling me over and learning I was on the registry, still let me pray for him. I held his hand and prayed protection and blessing over him.
Then I have had officers I had contact with for being in a park detain me for hours harassing me searching for any little thing to haul me in for.
The first county I lived in they used Police detectives for registration. That was horrible and I moved away. Where I am now they use civilian employees and so far if you treat them with respect, they do the same. I have yet to have any issues with them. Having said that, I have seen jerks registering just giving the employees grief like they had personally put him on the registry.
The old saying, the one who makes the most noise gets noticed. That is NOT always the best thing.
I had one of these calls 2 weeks ago. I was at work and got a call from the 813 area code which I didnt know so I just sent it to vm. About an hour later I see a vm was left. I called and retrieved the message and it went something like this “Hello this is the Hillsborough Sheriffs department and I am Officer (dont remember the name) please call me back at this number at extension 704”. The number was 813 596-5024. Immediately my anxiety went up and my mind started to race to think what have I done wrong. That went on for about 5 mins then I remembered the scam calls about missing registration and that eased my mind a bit but still wasnt sure. I went out to my car to make the call so I could have complete privacy. My heart was still racing as I dialed the number. The guy answered the phone as the sheriffs department. I asked for ext 704 and he said he could help me out and asked my name. I gave it to him and he went to pull my file. when he came back he said this was a recorded line and if I wanted a copy to contact the clerk of the court in 6 months. I started to feel like this was a scammer. So I asked who was the clerk and where was he office. He fumbled and quickly gave me an address.
He proceeded to tell me I missed a court appointed sample collection. Knowing I hadnt, I asked what was the sample I was suppose to give and he said you know the sample you guys give. I asked where this was supposed to be given and he said where I register. I told him I didnt register in Hillsborough he immediately was confused said oh ya then you need to go to Pinellas. By this time I was for sure this was a scammer and was pissed that he had gotten my anxiety up in the beginning. as they say knowledge is power so I decided to have a little fun with him. We went back and forth a little bit and he said oh I must be one of those smart ones who thinks they know the law.
He asked if I was refusing to five the sample and I said no and which he said he was stay on the line until I got down to the Pinellas Sheriffs department. Oh he had told me before that when I got there I would immediately be arrested. So being the smart ass that I am I asked him how is he going to stay on the phone and also notify them to arrest me which he gave me a stupid reason. He said I had to go right now and I said no because I was at work. I had to work so that I could pay for bail and an attorney if I was going to be arrested. I then asked him if I called some of the Detectives I know down there they would know about this and I named off a few I know, one I even babysat when he was a kid. The scammer didnt have any answers for me and finally hung up. I called back and gave them my name again and was again hung up on.
I felt pretty good by now so I text the detective who handles my file but never got a response which was kind of depressing. I had hoped they would want to the details to try to stop this.
I tell my story so that maybe one person wont fall prey to them.