The La Porte County Sheriff’s Office is warning area residents of a fraudulent scam. The Sheriff’s Office have received several complaints from citizens reporting that they’ve received a phone call from a person identifying himself as La Porte County Sheriff’s Sergeant Tony Wallace, and that the citizen is in criminal trouble for missing jury duty. The caller then advises that the citizen can pay a fine using “Green Dot” cards, thus keeping themselves out of trouble. The sheriff’s office encourages all citizens to be wary of any caller that wants to be paid by using a gift card or to have money wired to a location. Further, the sheriff’s office does not conduct business of this nature by telephone and never requires payment via a money or gift card. Anything of a true and official nature from the sheriff’s office would be served in document form by a deputy sheriff after it had been approved by a court.
“It is unfortunate that scam artists are preying on our citizens and using the authority of law enforcement to coerce them into using their savings for these scams” stated La Porte County Sheriff John Boyd. We always encourage anyone that receives suspicious calls like this one to call the sheriff’s department and speak with a deputy to verify their concerns. We also encourage folks not to rush into paying when a scammer calls and always take a few minutes to verify the information.”