The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office, along with other metro-area law enforcement agencies, continues to get reports of scammers pretending to be officers and deputies. In many cases, scammers are manipulating caller ID to mimic the real phone numbers of local police and sheriff’s offices to add fake legitimacy to their call.

The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office has made significant progress in cases it is investigating, but these scams are always evolving with new criminals joining the mix. Investigations are often complicated and take time to resolve because suspects rarely reside locally, especially in the cases of phone scams. The only sure way to defeat these criminals is to educate consumers to not fall for their scams.

Typical scams generally involve the caller identifying themselves as a law enforcement officer and telling the citizen that they have a warrant or an open case, or that they have missed jury duty. They ask for information such as full name, date of birth and Social Security number. They may reveal to the intended victim knowledge of their family members and information about past and present addresses and phone numbers to reinforce their scam when, in fact, most of the information is available to them on the internet. They then tell the citizen that they can take care of the problem by paying a fine, which is followed by a request for a money transfer or a prepaid credit card, such as Green Dot cards.

Scammers make the calls sound more legitimate by providing phony case numbers and using official terminology. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office recommends not speaking with these types of callers. If you are suspicious, ask for a phone number to call the person back and then notify law enforcement. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office does not call people because of missed jury duty or outstanding warrants, nor does any other law enforcement agency in the area.

If you have received one of these phone calls, please make a report by calling dispatch at 303-795-4711, or filing a report on-line at www.ArapahoeSheriff.org.