The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office would like to alert our citizens to a SCAM being perpetrated in our community.

The SCAM involves a phone call from a party advising they work for the HCSO Fugitive Unit. The caller then states they have an open warrant for their arrest informing the individual they have missed jury duty or pertains to some other random legal issue. In some cases, the caller will even use the name of one of our personnel to make the phone call sound more legitimate. The caller then proceeds to tell the individual they can pay over the phone with a pre-paid credit or “green card” to remove the warrant.

This SCAM is not new and has been perpetrated in our community for several years in some way, shape, or form. There have also been similar SCAMS that involve other county offices whereby the caller solicits pre-paid funds to get the individual out of jury duty, taxes, and other monetary charges.

The phone calls are made with voice-over-IP technology and are therefore very difficult to trace.

Please note, the HCSO, county offices, nor the Internal Revue Office or Social Security Administration will ever solicit funds from a citizen over the phone. All correspondence from the HCSO and county offices will be delivered by mail.

Remember: Never release monetary funds over the phone to anyone until you have verified the organization’s legitimacy.