IONIA COUNTY, Mich. (WLNS) — Got any alarming phone calls from the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office recently?
The sheriff’s office is asking locals to be wary of any phone calls, especially ones saying that the police have a warrant out for the target’s arrest, and the person must pay their bond or go to jail.
According to a Facebook post from the ICSO, the targets of these calls are deceived into spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on “MoneyPak” or “GreedDot” cards.
The scam victims will then give the card information to the scammer to pay the “bond” that’s owed.
“Once this happens, the money is gone and is very difficult for the real police to trace as most of these scams originate overseas,” the post said.
A new variation of the scam is targeting not just people. but businesses.
The scammer will try to convince the target employee of the call that they’re the police, working with the target’s boss and that the business has taken counterfeit money under police investigation.
The scammer then gets the target employee to have the money checked at stores that sell GreenDot and MoneyPak cards.
The scammer convinces the target employee that those larger retail stores will have to check the bills before they’ll accept them. By “testing their store’s money”, and getting the money safely back to their bosses accounts while ensuring that none of the bills in the company safe or cash drawer are counterfeit.
In actuality, the store’s cash is being sent directly to the scammer and is gone.
As a reminder, Detective and Sergeant Phillip A. Hesche says that the police will never contact you about bond over the phone ever.
Anyone who receives these calls is asked by officials to hang up.
“Stay informed, and keep your employees informed!” Hesche exclaimed in the post.