Tulsa County Sheriff's Office Issues Warning About New Phone Scam

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office said scammers are once again pretending to be deputies and telling people they have a warrant out for their arrest because they missed a court date or jury duty.

The scammers demand money or say you’ll be arrested.

Emily Feller said she is embarrassed to be a victim of a scam, but said the issue is bigger than herself, and wants to help others. "It was very, very scary,” Feller said.

She said she wound up spending two hours on the phone with a scammer Thursday, feeling isolated, and pressured to put $500 on a cash card, then read the number over the phone to the scammer. Her money was gone instantly.

"He knew I was a mental health professional. He knew my name, he knew my previous address,” she said.

The caller claimed to be Sgt. Mike Moore, and told her she had missed a court hearing and needed to pay up.

"I'm the real Sgt Mike Moore who works for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office,” Sgt. Moore said.

Sgt. Moore said just like other deputies who are listed on the sheriff's office website, his name is the latest to be used to scare people into paying scammers.

Moore said he has talked scammers like this on the phone, and admits they are very convincing.

"They'll throw out a bunch of legalize, official sounding terms, maybe even quote a state statute,” Moore said.

"The amount of information he had was just given to me nonstop and so it doesn't give you the chance to kind of slow down and assess the situation logically,” Feller said.

The sheriff's office said it will never call anyone with warrants and demand cash to avoid being arrested.

Feller warns others, the call she got was sophisticated and the scam may not be as obvious as you'd think.

"Don't beat yourself up,” she said.

The sheriff's office said if you are ever in doubt about having a warrant, you can easily check that on their website, here.