Spartanburg Touched by Scam

Don't get scammed by scammers.

Attorney General Alan Wilson is warning South Carolinians about a scam in which people claim to be members of his office’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force or local police in order to steal money.

The scam appears to be ramping up and they have even used a real investigator’s information from Spartanburg.

The scam involves a male victim meeting a “female” on a dating app, and then the victim is contacted by a fake "parent" or "investigator" wanting money or offering to let them pay a fine to avoid jail time.

Spartanburg County's Internet Crimes Against Children Investigator Mark Hatch has also been dealing with this as his name has been used in the scam and he is working with a victim of this scam.

As a reminder, no law enforcement agency will use email domains such as Google, Yahoo, or any other service accessible to the general public. Neither will Law Enforcement ever solicit money on behalf of a "victim" or request payment via gift cards, CashApp, Venmo, or any other money transfer application.

Press release below from the Attorney General's Office:

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - Attorney General Alan Wilson is warning people about a scam in which people claim to be members of his office’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force or local police in order to steal money.

For years, criminals have pretended to be law enforcement and members of the ICAC task force. The scam appears to be ramping up and they have even used a real investigator’s information from Spartanburg.

The scam involves a male victim meeting a “female” on a dating app, and then the victim is contacted by a “parent” wanting money or an “investigator” offering to let them pay a fine to avoid jail. They tell the victim that they were actually talking to a minor, and then the scammers see how much money they can get out of the victim.

The Attorney General’s Office’s ICAC task force took calls and emails every day last week from people reporting the scam or asking about it. We always tell callers that law enforcement never asks for money and direct them to contact their local law enforcement agency to report the fraud/harassment.