The Cass County Sheriff’s Office is notifying the public of a recurrent scam that’s been happening in the area.
Sheriff Jesse Jahner says scammers often impersonate law enforcement members in order to work their scams. He says victims are usually told they owe fines or have a warrant, which would go away after paying a fee. Jahner says yesterday a scammer told a victim they were Sheriff Jahner, provided fictitious court and case numbers, and then convinced them to send money through a Bitcoin machine. Jahner says law enforcement will never solicit payments this way.
"We're not going to ask people to drop off money anywhere other than the Courthouse. If someone does have a warrant and they ask how to take care of it, we typically tell them that they can come down to the Courthouse and go down to the clerk of court's office and make their bond payment if that's what they have. And that's really the only thing we direct them to do, but that business would be actually conducted at the Cass County Courthouse, which is where we take care of official, legitimate governmental and court business."
Jahner says scammers will impersonate law enforcement as an intimidation tactic. He says if you feel you are being targeted by such a scam, you can hang up and contact law enforcement yourself. He says the scammers can spoof legitimate phone numbers and even provide actual unit numbers to appear legitimate. This particular scammer even invited the victim to come to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Center in North Fargo.