P.S.A. from the Polk County Sheriff

By Kelly Sargent

Tucker Law is sharing this P.S.A from the Polk County Sheriff's Office in an effort to help you avoid being scammed.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office continues to field calls regarding phone scams. Many of these scams revolve around missing jury duty, causing a warrant for a person's arrest. The scammer then requests payment from the victim to avoid arrest. The people conducting these scams are using sophisticated methods to make the calls seem real. They will use the actual names of employees at the Polk County Sheriff's Office, and often times, the callback phone number will come back to an office within our agency. 

​Indicators of a scam:

• Requesting payment to avoid arrest
• Requesting payment to aid a family member who is supposedly in trouble
• Requesting personal information like Social Security, credit card or bank account numbers
• Requesting payment by gift card, cryptocurrency or wire transfer
• The caller is very persistent or pushy and gets aggravated

If you receive a questionable call and want to verify the information, call your local law enforcement. If you fall victim to a scam and money is lost, call your local law enforcement to make a report. If you receive a scam call and no money is lost, report the call to the Federal Trade Commission at www.reportfraud.ftc.gov.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office has also released a Public Service Announcement video to help educate the public. Please share this video to help spread the message and reduce the number of victims falling for these scams.
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