Criminal Division

Phone Scam Warning

Don’t Be A Victim

If you get a phone call from anyone purporting to be from the Sheriff's Office asking you for money or personal information for any reason - Hang Up! It’s a Scam!

Here are just a few of the scam threat calls people have received:

• “You missed jury duty”
• “You didn’t pay your IRS taxes or state taxes or property taxes”
• “There’s a warrant for your arrest”
• “You need to pay the fine for a relative who’s in custody”

In most of these calls, the perpetrator will try to get you to purchase some sort of non-traceable payment like a pre-paid card (Green Dot, iTunes, Amazon, etc), then have you read the numbers to them. Once they have those numbers you have lost your money.

Finding Help

The KY Attorney General's Office has tasked their Comsumer Protection Department with tracking these scams. If you have fallen prey to this scheme you can call their scam hotline and leave a message with the details of your incident. The AG office will use this information to track scam trends and alert other citizens of these scams. There you will also hear information on getting help from the IRS or Federal Trade Commission.

That number is: 1-888-432-9257 (option 3 then option 1).

Stay In The Loop

The KY Attorney General has launched Scam Alerts - a messaging service to immediately alert Kentuckians when con artists are on the attack. Visit their page https://ag.ky.gov/scams to read more, report a scam or sign up for alerts.