Canadian County Sheriff's Office Warns Against Phone Scam

Pay up or be arrested -- that's what scammers are now telling residents around the metro. They're posing as Sheriff's deputies. 

Phone scams are nothing new, but the Canadian County Sheriff's Department hopes to handcuff this scam before there are more victims.

Sheriff Randall Edwards said the scammers claim to be with the department and explain that an active warrant is on file for your arrest, or for a family member's arrest, and if you want to stay out of jail, you need to make a payment now and do so by going to a Dollar General store to buy a PayPal card or VISA Cash card.

But the Sheriff wants to remind you, the department would never make calls to collect money. Deputies don’t take payment on these types of matters, the Court Clerk does. Also deputies will always serve papers such as arrest warrants in person, and never by telephone.

The Sheriff also said it's easy to verify whether the phone call would be legitimate or not just by calling the law enforcement agency back, and telling them about the phone call.