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Officials in Ohio are issuing a warning to residents after receiving reports of a phone scam that sees the callers posing as law enforcement.
On Wednesday (February 21), the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Dayton shared a post on its Facebook page urging residents to be cautious of a phone scam "circulating throughout the community," per WHIO.
In the scam, callers are posing as "Captain Ted Jackson" or "Sergeant Scott Morgan" with the MCSO and telling the potential victims that they have missed a court appearance or have a legal matter that needs to be discussed. The callers then ask for the individual to provide a "substantial payment" through methods like Apple Pay, PayPal or money order, or else the resident will have a warrant out for their arrest.
The sheriff's office said callers may have "spoofed" or cloned phone numbers that appear legitimate on caller ID, possibly even appearing as if it's a real call from MCSO, but this isn't the case.
"These scammers can be very convincing and while in hindsight it may be easy to blame the victims, please keep in mind that these ruthless scammers are very successful at targeting people from all walks of life and age groups," said Sheriff Rob Streck.
The sheriff's office reiterated that it would not call residents and threaten arrest for unpaid fines, warrants or missed court dates. Anyone who receives such a call should hang up and report it to local law enforcement.
If this phone scam sounds familiar, that's because it is very similar to one that the sheriff's department warned residents about last year that saw callers posing as a "Lieutenant Green" telling victims they have a warrant out for their arrest.