Welcome back to another thrilling installment of Walton County’s scam series: “Scammers Pretending to Keep You Out of the Slammer.”
In this week’s episode, someone pretending to be “Sergeant Darryl McGhee” is dialing up folks who just bonded out of jail, claiming there’s been a “glitch in the system” and, surprise, they need to send more money.
Now, let’s clear this up: Is Sergeant Darryl McGhee a real person? Yes. Is he personally calling you for money? Absolutely not. Does he even work at the jail? Not even a little bit.
Last week, it was “Sergeant Eric Welton” (also very real), calling from our non-emergency number, telling people they missed jury duty and had a warrant. But don’t worry! He’d be happy to clear that up for a small fee. Through gift cards. Because that’s how warrants work now, apparently. *In the voice of the little old lady from that one Allstate commercial* “That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works.”
REMEMBER:
• Law enforcement will never call and ask for cash instead of serving a warrant.
• Don’t wire money. Don’t buy gold bars. Don’t send Bitcoin. And we definitely don’t want your Apple gift cards.
• Never give out personal or financial information over the phone. If they want it, they can try hacking your email like civilized scammers.
• Stay skeptical. If they say they’re from the Sheriff’s Office, hang up, take a breath, then call us directly to verify.
Stay suspicious. Stay stingy. And if you think you’re being scammed, HANG UP!
