Scam warning!

Yesterday I went out for a while, when I came back there was a message on my answer phone. It said this is *name of local sheriff's office here* this is a message for Sarah George please call us back. The voice had a local accent. I had never had any dealings with any sheriff's office before and had no idea why they would be calling me but I called them back, how could you not, this is local law enforcement?

I called and reached the typical menu that tells you it's the sheriff's office and press one for this and two for that etc. I got through to someone and explained I was returning a call, they put me on hold for a moment and then officer Rodriguez explained to me I was supposed to do jury duty and had missed it, the judge was annoyed and as I had not made any contact to explain my absence had put out two indictments on me. Because of this I needed to report straight away to the sheriff's office and then they would make a time for me to see the judge to explain. I explained that I was disabled and couldn't drive and would need to call my husband at work to take me. Officer Rodriguez said he would put me through to his lieutenant to see if there was any alternative. Again I was put on hold and then Lieutenant Daniels picked up.

Lieutenant Daniels was very nice actually he told me not to worry it was a misdemeanor and all I needed to do was show up at the sheriff's office, he told me which desk to go to, explained they would give me some forms to fill out and then there was a kiosk where I would make an account and post my bond. Then probably the next day I would see the judge explain my situation and if he accepted it was a mistake my record would be clean and I would get my bond back. I told him I was not a US citizen and did not think that I could do jury duty, he said well do you own property in the US which I agreed I did and he said well when you own property that sometimes can give you the same rights as a US citizen, but he wasn't sure and the judge would know. I told him I had never received the summons and he told me I just had to explain that to the judge and he was sure it would all be worked out as he knew I did not have a criminal record.

Then he told me I had to call them back on my cell phone because since I was supposed to be arrested I was supposed to stay in touch until I reached the sheriff's office, obviously I thought that was odd but lieutenant Daniels, before I could say anything said I know that sounds odd but we were supposed to arrest you and we are trusting you to come in on your own so we need to stay in touch. ( I still thought it sketchy but what if all this is true and I don't do as he says, plus he wasn't asking me for money and he was telling me to go to the sheriff's office. I called back on my cell phone, again got the same menu tree, again got put on hold until I was put through to Lieutenant Daniels. I called my husband told him something odd was going on and I didn't know what to do and he said he'd come straight home.

While waiting for him lieutenant Daniels helpfully said I was not to worry, that i didn't need to be actually holding the phone I could just set it down and put it on speaker phone and just speak if I needed him and let him know when I was on my way. while i got on with some paperwork. He also said all I needed to bring with me was my ID and some paper and a pen because I would need to write down the account number for posting my bond so I could get my bond back later. He didn't mention bringing money, I asked him what about the bond, how much will it be. He said you have two indictments they are $900 each. I asked if I could pay by visa he said no bond has to be paid in cash. I said well I don't have $1800 in cash, who does? He said "well my wife has gotten emergency cash before by calling the bank ahead and telling them how much she needs and they put it on the computer so that the ATM will allow her to withdraw that amount as a one time withdrawal." He did say something about Western Union but I said I had never used them and he said "oh that's ok I was just trying to think of ways you could get the cash, but if you can just call your bank ahead that would be fine"

At this point my husband gets home, we quietly discuss how sketchy it all sounds but how can we be sure, so he talks to Lieutenant Daniels and gets all the same information, until eventually my husband asks to speak to the Captain, at the same time I check the phone number for the Sheriff's office and find it's a different number, which I immediately tell my husband, .... They put the phone down., It was all a scam.

We are not sure how they were going to get the money from us, the police say that most of these scammers are from Africa, Jamaica, Haiti, and some other countries and at some point they would have told me I could not actually go to the sheriff's office and would have gotten me to wire the money. I'm not actually convinced by that because this scam was far more elaborate than most, and they were talking about local places, even spoofing a local number so it said the name of the town on my machines caller ID and they certainly appeared to have a local accent.

Anyway I'm telling you all because although most of you are in the UK, I know that the same scams are run in both countries because my mom gets all the same telephone scam calls as me and by changing the word sheriff to police the same scam could easily be used there. If you have to call anyone back in similar circumstances, don't take their word for what the phone number is, look it up yourself and stay safe.