‘Absolute fear’: Phone scammers hard at work impersonating Horry County deputies, sheriff says

HORRY COUNTY S.C. (WBTW) — Scammers have been hard at work impersonating Horry County sheriff’s deputies in recent weeks, authorities said.

Several people have called the sheriff’s office claiming to have been scammed by people posting as deputies.

Sheriff Phillip Thompson said his office received 25 calls about the scam on Monday alone. One person reported losing $10,000.

The scammers have been brazen, using the sheriff’s office’s phone number and the names of deputies who work for the department.

“They’ll tell them they’ve missed jury duty and that there’s a warrant for their arrest and if they’ll go somewhere and get a certain amount of money and send them the money, then the bond will be lifted,” Thompson said.

There are some key red flags to look out for, Thompson said. There’s usually a sense of urgency to pay money forward or threats that a person could go to jail. They also want people to pay using different money outlets such as Bitcoin, CashApp, Zelle or any prepaid card.

Although these scammers can sound convincing, Thompson said no one from his office would ever ask for money over the phone. Any money collected would have to go through the court system.

“No one’s gonna call you and say,’ if you give me $1,000, $10,000, $5,000, you don’t have to go to jail,” Thompson said. “You know, if there’s a warrant for your arrest, on officer [or] a deputy would show up with two or more forms for you.”

Olivia Burdick, a 26-year-old licensed therapist in Horry County, is one of many people who have fallen victim to the phone scams. She said her scammer was very believable and knew things about her family.

The person had a South Carolina accent and had multiple people talk to her on the phone, she said. In addition, the scammer told her that if she didn’t pay him immediately with $13,000 for ignoring a subpoena to appear in court she would be put in handcuffs.

“So I told him that I didn’t have anything close to that kind of money,” Burdick said. “He said he could petition the judge to get me a lower amount but that I would have to prove with my bank statements or whatever that I didn’t actually have that much money. So I was giving him probably way too much information about the different types of accounts I have.”

Burdick said the scammer asked her to go to the bank and take the money out of her account. He told her to tell the banker that it was for a family emergency and then proceeded to tell her to exchange the cash for a bond coupon.

Luckily, she got help from a real officer to prevent herself from potentially losing thousands of dollars. However, she said the whole encounter was a nightmare and that she was in “absolute fear.”

“He didn’t let me off the phone,” Burdick said. “I couldn’t talk to anybody else. So he was isolating me and confusing me. He was gaslighting me with information, and, actually, when we look back at it, it was dark psychology … like mind control to some degree by giving me permission, to do things, to start my car, to switch the phone number or whatever. He was conditioning my brain to take instructions from him.”

Thompson said that if anyone receives any sort of scam call they should immediately hang up and call the sheriff’s office to inform them of the scam.

“Just hang up the telephone,” he said. “Our sheriff’s office, no other law enforcement agency in the world is going to ask you for money over a telephone. That is not the court proceedings, and that’s not the way it’s going to happen.”

Thompson said his team is working on cracking down on scammers but says as new technology comes out, and because of how elaborate the scammers are with voices and names, it’s very difficult to track them down.

Thompson said he and his deputies are doing everything they can to help those who have been scammed and hopes knowing these red flags can help you from falling victim to the scam calls.

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Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter , Facebook or Instagram , and read more of her work here .

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