The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office is warning people about a scam in which someone is posing as a detective with the Sheriff's Office, saying there's a warrant out for your arrest, and demanding you pay bail over the phone. The number that shows up in the caller ID is the Sheriff's Office non-emergency line.
Skip Conroy of the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said two people reported getting this call over the weekend.
The scammers are doing what's called "spoofing."
"Spoofing is a way to mask your number as you're calling from one number, but it shows up in the caller ID as a different number or different name," Andrew Jennings, a tech expert who owns uBreakiFix in Cape Coral, told Fox 4.
He said spoofing is pretty easy.
"Websites and applications you can get to do it that you can get off the internet. And from what I've heard, it's not to difficult or expensive to buy those programs," he said. "It's to scare you. To think they're real. That they're actually going to either arrest you if you don't pay the money, or it's just a method of threatening you."
"We would never call anyone over the phone demanding payment for an outstanding arrest warrant," Conroy said.
No government agency will ever call you asking for money. If you get a phone call like this, report it to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office at 941-639-2101.
