MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Richard Adams and his wife got a call they now know is a phone scam that the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said they are seeing a lot of recently.
“…that she’ll soon be served with a subpoena due to a civil suit placed against her social security number,” Adams recalled.
The Sheriff’s Office said someone is posing as law enforcement or debt collectors for law enforcement and scaring people into forking over hundreds to thousands of dollars in cash.
One victim was even fooled into wiring nearly $2,000 because he thought his granddaughter was looked up on a DUI charge.
“We just want to let people know that is absolutely false and that is not how we do business,” Chip Washington, spokesperson for the SCSO, said.
There have been at least five people who have come forward about these calls.
“I always say to go by your gut instinct,” Washington explained.
The SCSO wanted people to be on the lockout and be alert to the bogus calls.
“We will never call you to solicit funds of any kind,” Washington said.
Most victims, like Adams, knew that.
Adams kept track of the phone number and voicemail details and reported the incident to several agencies.
“Things like this is why I don’t answer the phone when it’s a number from out of state that I don’t know,” Adams said.
“It is a shame when someone uses the good name of the Shelby County Sherrif’s Office to report a scam,” Washington said.
If you know anything about who is behind the scam, call Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH.