Officials: Residents robbed of $18K by scammers impersonating Bulloch County employees

STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV) – The Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents of online and over-the-phone scams after two people were robbed of $9,000 each last week.

“The people that it’s targeting are people that’s just trying to do the right thing,” said Sgt. James “Bubba” Revell with the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office.

“They’re scared that they’re not doing the right thing and that’s not fair,” he said.

Revell says scammers have been impersonating county employees to try and squeeze residents for money.

“They’re very convincing,” said Revell. “I had two last week where the person really, really sounded like a deputy… they were using the deputies names from our sheriff’s office… they knew all these people’s addresses.”

A lot of your information already exists online, meaning scammers could be calling from anywhere in the world, and they’ll have their facts straight.

“If we can find out who they are, there would be charges, but finding out who they are is the hard part,” said Revell. “Most of the time once that money is gone, we can’t track it down because it’s done in Bitcoin or some other crypto sometimes, so it’s almost impossible to get back.”

Revell says you should never give away money over the phone for any fines or warrants that the person on the other line says you have. He says no recent scam involves taking money to a physical location, but if the caller wants you to head to an ATM or wire transfer anything, they’re probably trying to pull one over on you.

If you’re ever in doubt, hang up and call the agency they claim they’re calling from and check.