The scariest part of spooky season? Phone scams

IDAHO FALLS – The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office is alerting the public about a popular phone scam where the caller pretends to be law enforcement.

It’s one of the most common scams, with the callers often trying to convince the victims they missed a court hearing, jury duty, or have warrants for their arrest.

Some scam calls even use technology that allows the actual phone number of local law enforcement to appear on a caller ID.

The goal of the scam is to convince you that you are facing arrest or jail time for a variety of reasons, but usually, the call ends with the caller asking for money, saying that you need to pay some sort of fee.

While deputies and local law enforcement do often call people by phone to talk about pending issues or cases, there is never a time when money is needed over the phone to take care of an issue.

Here are a few things to think about if you receive a suspicious call from a government officer or entity that you are unsure about:

1. Deputies, police officers, and court personnel will never call and ask you for money over the phone to resolve warrants, jury or court issues. Law enforcement will also not ask for the purchase of a gift card, money card, etc. at a business or over the internet in order to avoid an arrest.
2. If you have not been tied to any court cases, business, or issues recently and have not received official notice by mail or service of court paperwork by a deputy or process server, it’s worth looking up the number for your local county courts or law enforcement dispatch to verify if an officer is trying to contact you for official business.
3. Some callers can mask their real location and phone number to appear as if they are calling from official dispatch or law enforcement numbers, and at times scammers even use the actual names of local law enforcement. If you were not expecting a call from law enforcement, ask questions and take steps to verify who is actually calling.

If it’s possible that you are the subject of unresolved issues in the courts that has resulted in a warrant for your arrest, it is your responsibility to contact the courts to resolve the issue or turn yourself into law enforcement.

Again, law enforcement will never offer or attempt to resolve unpaid fines or active arrest warrants by taking payment over the phone, but they may contact you to ask that you turn yourself in.

This is just one type of scam deputies and local law enforcement have seen time and time again and unfortunately, people fall victim to it.

Be suspicious of unsolicited calls, emails, social media and text messages, especially those with unknown internet links.

Take a moment to think about what is being asked and why before you provide personal information.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office recommends periodic changes to passwords and monitoring of your personal accounts for suspicious activity as well, setting up 2-step verifications, and alerts that notify you of suspicious activity.

Doing these things can better protect you from being a victim.