KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Ed. Note: The following is a news release provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
A phone scam has been cheating residents in and around the Santa Clarita Valley out of money and personal information, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
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L.A. County residents have been receiving phone calls from individuals who are representing themselves as department employees. The caller usually claims that there has been a warrant issued for the the victim’s arrest for failure to appear for jury duty.
The caller will tell the victim that they have to pay a sum of money or deputies will come and arrest them.
The caller will instruct the victim to either get a money order, conduct a wire transfer, or buy a gift card, usually the Green Dot brand, and send it to “pay the fine.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department would like to remind residents that neither they or any Government Agency will ever call and solicit money for fines. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department also does not solicit warrant information by phone.
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No government agency will ever ask to receive a money order, gift Card or wire transfer. Sheriff Department personnel will never go to individual homes to collect a fee for a warrant.
Residents are advised to never give personal information to anyone over the phone, or give callers information about bank accounts, pin numbers, a Social Security number or any type of identifying information.
Phone scam thieves are just that: thieves. If in doubt of a caller, always verify who the caller truly is, and use a number other than the one given to you by the caller to verify.
Santa Clarita residents can call the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station at (661) 255-1121.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department asks that If you have sent money or believe that you are a victim of a crime, please call your local sheriff’s station and report the incident.
As well, the department asks that If you receive a suspicious phone call/solicitation that you believe is not from a real government agency, please contact The Department of Consumer Affairs at (800) 593-8222. You can also file a complaint on the DCA website here.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at [email protected].
Yep. And also all of you need to watch out for other phone scams going around, most notably the IRS and the DMV ones! They can come across as hard-nosed, authoritive, and indignant towards you–even rude! Nowadays, I actually think it’s fun! They call and give me their BS, and I laugh out loud at them and start going off belittling them, and they just hang up! Ah, yes! A win! Heh-heh!! 😛
What was the number, dude? Did you save it? I would like to check it at http//whycall.me to see if people have also been called by that number recently. They all are very persistent, though. We should be very vigilant.
I do agree, as you, I will let them give me the ‘whatever’ story but once finished, I will lay into them left and right. I usually end the call by wishing them a good day…
I do agree, as there are lot of scammers being polised in LA, There should be more focused on jailing those victims.