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At the close of the Troup County Board of Commissioners work session on Tuesday morning,  Commission Chairman Patrick Crews gave a public service announcement warning citizens of an ongoing scam.

“Yesterday, I got a call from a citizen who was actively involved in a scam. The caller had identified themselves as a member of the Troup County Sheriff’s Department, and said they had an outstanding warrant, and that they were being charged with failure to appear, and they wanted the citizen to send them $2,000,” Crews said.

“[The scammer] stayed on the phone with the citizen while they drove to an ATM in one of our local grocery stores. [The victim} told them her husband was trying to reach her, they told her that if you hang up the phone, I’m going to charge you with obstruction of justice or another trumped up charge,” Crews said.

Crews said fortunately, two employees of the grocery store saw that the person was very distraught and got them to hang up the phone, recognizing the scam.

“When they contacted the sheriff’s department, [TCSO] told them that we’ve already had 20 calls this morning,” Crews said.

“We know there are always scams going on but this one seems to be the prominent one at the time; to call people and say they are from the Troup County Sheriff’s Department and tell them to pay their fine over the phone,” Crews said.

Crews said the scammers can be very convincing and they know all the right words adding they had a police radio playing in the background.

Sgt. Stewart Smith of the Troup County Sheriff’s Office said to just hang up if you get calls like this because no law enforcement agency is ever going to call you to ask for money to settle a warrant over the phone.

Smith said deputies never collect money for court fines. That’s done at the courthouse.

“The only money we collect is at the jail for bonds,” Smith said. “As for warrants, we never collect anything of that nature.”

“If you get a phone call from any person that identifies themselves as a deputy or an officer, and they say what agency they’re from, and they’re saying you have an active warrant or something like that, use your gut instinct if you know you don’t have one and just hang up,” Smith said.

You can always call back on a verified number to confirm the call was a scam. Smith warned to always hang up and use a real number for the agency and never hit redial. Scammers can use cloning devices to make your Caller ID show that the call is coming from the Troup County Sheriff’s Office when it isn’t.

If you get a call from a scammer claiming to be from the Troup County Sheriff’s Office, hang up and call their main number at 706-883-1616.

Smith suggested that adults make their parents aware of the scam as it is often older adults who are targeted by the scammers.