Reports of a phone scam threatening arrest over missed grand jury duty have been spiking in recent weeks, the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) said. The department is warning Phelps County residents to remain vigilant after multiple victims have lost thousands of dollars.

Callers have been impersonating deputies from the PCSD, using names they can find online and fake telephone numbers. They claim the victim has missed showing up to grand jury duty and threaten arrest unless payment is made.

“No law enforcement agency is going to call you over the phone and tell you to pay something, not the federal government, not the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department, nobody,” PCSD Captain Rick Hope said. “It’s not going to happen.”

Hope said reports of the scam started spiking about two weeks ago, although scams are always ongoing in the community. According to the FBI’s Fraud Unit, this is a major scam happening across the central United States. Hope feels Phelps County has been hit hard.

The callers use spoofed numbers to appear as though they are calling from the sheriff’s department or a federal government agency.

Scammers have been sending victims fake documents, including those that appear to be arrest warrants and non-disclosure agreements. 

Once a scammer has a victim on the phone, they say the victim needs to visit five local stores and make transfers worth $500 using their credit or debit card and a QR code the scammer sends. 

PCSD has identified Kroger, CVS, Dollar General, Walgreens and Walmart as the stores where victims are being sent. Deputies have notified these locations of the scam so that employees can help prevent them from happening.

Callers may bargain with a victim for the amount of money being requested. These specific scams often begin with a caller requesting $4,000 from the victim.

Many victims are sent documents requiring them to remain on the phone with the caller until all transactions are complete. Hope said this makes it difficult for a victim to fully process what is being asked of them until the call is over, because the scammers work off of fear.

Once a victim completes all of the transactions, scammers send them to the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department as a final stop. This is when they discover they’ve been scammed.

“These aren’t all old, elderly people (being scammed),” Hope said. “These are some intelligent people, but the (scammers) they’re dealing with are pros.”

A few days ago, Hope said he even had an “intelligent businessperson” come into the sheriff’s office after losing thousands of dollars to the scam. 

“The problem is, most people want to do the right thing, and they don’t want this kind of problem,” said Phelps County Sheriff Michael Kirn.

The use of a QR code makes the transactions especially difficult to track. Hope said PCSD has very limited information on the identity of these scammers because they work off of burner phones, but suspects they may be international.

To avoid these scams, it is important to know that law enforcement will never demand payment over the phone or bargain a transaction amount. Do not provide unsolicited callers with personal or financial information, including debit and credit card numbers.

If you receive a scam call, hang up and call the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department at 573-426-3860 to report the call or receive clarification. Do not use a number for the PCSD provided to you by the caller, as it may be another fake number that leads to a connected scammer.

Scam calls can also be reported online to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.