Jan. 10—JAMESTOWN — The Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a scam involving an imposter posing as specific sheriff’s deputies.
“We would like to make it clear that our office will never ask you for money or payment information over the phone,” the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday, January 9.
A Jamestown police officer received a call and voicemail Thursday from a person posing as Deputy Chief Jason Falk, an investigator with the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office.
“It was clear it wasn’t me,” Falk said. “It was a scammer.”
Falk said the scam involves someone posing as Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office personnel and telling someone there is a warrant for his or her arrest. He said the scammer then tells the person to pay money to avoid arrest.
He said the scammer asks for money via prepaid debit cards or gift cards.
“The usual scam is always when they want the money in cards like gift cards or something like that,” he said.
Falk said a return call from the Jamestown police officer’s phone to the scammer went to voicemail with a message saying it was the Stutsman County Law Enforcement Center’s non-emergency line and to call 911 if it was an emergency.
“It sounded pretty legitimate and it’s clearly not,” he said.
He said he heard secondhand Thursday that a victim sent money to the scammer. As of Thursday evening, the victim wasn’t sure if he or she wanted to report it because the person was “quite embarrassed,” Falk said.
Falk said law enforcement agencies will not call individuals to ask for money and gift cards to post bail to avoid an arrest.
“That’s kind of the common denominator of all scams: sending money this way,” he said.
Another sign that the call is a scam is when the scammer tells individuals to remain confidential about sending law enforcement money, Falk said. He said the scammer is trying to prevent people from calling the actual Stutsman County Law Enforcement Center.
He said the scam where someone pretends to be a law enforcement officer is happening across the country. He said the scam has been going on in Barnes County for some time.
If someone receives a suspicious call, Falk says to call the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office at (701) 252-6200 or the Stutsman County Communications Center at (701) 252-1000 and ask to speak to a deputy to clear the phone call. verify.
“If people did that more, we would have fewer scam victims,” he said.