The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office has been made aware of a telephone scam in which the caller claims to be with a local law enforcement agency and tries to scare people with the threat of jail into paying them money.

“Do not be scammed”, Jeff Lawless, Lawrence County Sheriff, said. “If you receive a phone call similar to this, simply hang up the phone. Do not give this caller any information.”

If anyone receives this phone call, Lawless suggests reporting it to the local law enforcement agency.
These scammers are able to get the local law enforcement agencies phone number to show up on the caller ID and then claim to be with the agency. They tell the people there is a warrant for their arrest and that if they do not pay a certain amount of money they will be arrested. They have persuasive scare tactics and once they have the person convinced to pay they ask the person obtain a prepaid credit card and to call a different number with the credit card information.
The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and most other law enforcement agencies do not collect money for warrants. Money is paid directly to the court and Lawless said the sheriff’s office does not collect money for warrants this manner.