Putnam County’s sheriff is frustrated because scammers are attempting to take money from local residents and have succeeded. Although the scam is not new, Sills said people are falling for it.
“It hurts me that people are losing money; it’s just painful, and I don’t know what I can do,” Sheriff Howard Sills said Tuesday.
Sills said there is “an epidemic” of people getting phone calls from someone posing as a Putnam County Sheriff’s Office deputy telling them they failed to show up for jury duty and must pay a fine or be taken to jail.
“The sheriff’s office is not going to call you, and we are not going to ever take money from you over the phone,” he emphasized.
He said that one Putnam County woman paid the caller $4,000 in Bitcoin, and he has had others call him with similar results that he never would have imagined would fall for the scam.
“They keep telling me, ‘But he sounds so real,’” he said.
Sills said courts do not accept Bitcoin or gift cards. He is placing warning signs on Bitcoin ATM machines all over the county.
The signs reveal, “The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office DOES NOT and will NEVER call you on the phone and direct you to send money anywhere. If you have received a phone call, text, or email, saying that you have missed jury duty and you must send money, bitcoin, gift card, or any other means of payment to any place, IT IS A SCAM!!!!! DO NOT SEND MONEY!!!! – Howard R. Sills, Sheriff”