Sheriff’s Office warns again about scam phone calls

Staff report

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO) is again advising residents to hang up if they receive a call from someone posing as a deputy and saying they missed jury duty or have a warrant. The caller often asks for payment with a gift card or cryptocurrency.

The callers sound credible and even use the name of a real ASO deputy, but ASO says, “This is a scam. The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office will never call you and demand money over the phone. For that matter, no professional law enforcement agency will. If you get a call from someone identifying themselves as a deputy and using high-pressure tactics and being very demanding, trying to elicit some form of payment, hang up!”

An ASO spokesman previously told Alachua Chronicle that the phone numbers, which appear to be local, are spoofed, and efforts to trace them usually find that they originate from other countries.

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