UTAH COUNTY — Utah County Sheriff’s investigators were warning Wednesday about a phone scam that sounds like it’s coming from local police and may be originating somewhere within the Beehive State.

“They will tell them that they either have a warrant for their arrest, or that they missed a jury summons and the way they can solve the problem is by going to a store and getting a cash card or giving them a number for a debit card,” Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.

Cannon said deputies had encountered three cases in the past week, and in each, the caller identified himself as an employee of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and instructed people to bring their money to the jail.

Cannon said the situation presents several worries for police beyond simply the money, with victims being hit up for hundreds to thousands of dollars.

“The other real concern is that it’s involving a level of personal contact with someone who is a criminal,” Cannon said.

Other police agencies around the state have seen similar problems in recent months.

In March, Unified Police said one man showed up at the Salt Lake County Jail with $3,300 in gift cards, seeking to clear a supposed warrant.

Lt. Lex Bell said Wednesday afternoon that the department had seen another handful of cases over the past month.

It doesn’t appear in any of the cases that people actually handed money over to the scammers, but police feared there may be other circumstances they’ve yet to discover.

The scammers appear to be using real names of police officers in some of the calls, sheriff’s investigators said.

“We will never ask somebody to give us money, meet us someplace and give us money, or give us a credit card or debit card number over the phone,” Cannon said. “We do call and remind them about it, but we let them look up where it is. If they really got a ticket, they’ll remember it. Even if they think they paid it, they can still call and check it out.”

Cannon said anybody who believes they have been scammed and have not called police, should do so. He also said anybody who receives this type of call should call their local department and have officers meet up with the scammers.

Retailer Involvement

At Smith’s Food & Drug in Payson, store manager Wes Anderson said he and customer service workers had intervened in two recent cases where people tried to put large amounts of money on pre-paid debit cards to clear supposed warrants.

“They’re convincing – they’re very, very convincing,” Anderson said of the scammers. “As you watch the customer, they’re shaking. You can tell they’re scared of what’s happening.”

Anderson said victims in the two cases did not initially listen to the workers, and he had to be called over to explain the situation further to them.

“’Is there anybody in jail?’ ‘No.’ ‘Have you got a letter in the mail that summons you to jury duty?’ ‘No.’” Anderson described of the conversations. “’Well, it’s a scam.’”

Anderson said per company policies, people looking to make high-dollar money orders or infuse large amounts of money into pre-paid debit cards are directed to the customer service desk to complete their transactions.

Workers, he said, have been trained to watch for other scams, and they are currently watching for indicators of this one as well in order to protect potential victims.

“We ask the associates to really do our due diligence to try to help them,” Anderson said. “It’s just a matter of our great associates who were looking out for the customers. We try to tell them to watch out for those things, but it’s them listening and watching out for it themselves.”

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