Historically, scam artists often worked alone and only seemed to target the elderly. However, times have changed and now most scams are master minded by criminal groups who are highly organized, very tech savvy and have no limits to who they target.
Madison County Sheriff Ben Stewart would like for all citizens to be aware that scam activities are increasingly claiming more and more victims.
Methods include falsely filing others income tax returns, calling claiming to be a law enforcement officer or representing an official agency such as the IRS demanding the victim pay fines or penalties to avoid arrest, which includes sending official looking documents claiming the victim owes fines or penalties. Most of these types of scams require the victim to obtain a pre-paid type credit card and load the card with funds to remit as payment. These are just a few examples and do not even begin to scratch the surface.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office works hard to identify and publicize every type of scam, but as soon as the community is made aware of any one scam, the criminal organization is already one step ahead and will simply change their methods.
With social media and the Internet playing such a huge role in everyone’s daily lives, it becomes hard to track the origin of scams or the criminals responsible for them.
It is not uncommon for these criminals who target victims in the county to be located in other states or even in another country.
If you are contacted by phone, email or any other means claiming you will be held criminally or civilly liable unless you pay fines, fees or penalties, please contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and request an officer to assist you in verifying whether or not the claim against you is from a legitimate source.
Do not respond to the demands and certainly do not be too quick to send any personal information or form of payment without first verifying the source of the claim.
Make note of the phone number or email address that contacted you and then contact the Sheriff's Office and let them help. Avoid being an easy victim for these criminal groups. If you feel that you have been targeted by a scam, please contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 973-4001 or (850) 973-4002.
Your information may prevent your neighbor from becoming a victim of scamming as well.