COVINGTON, Ga. – An Investigator with the Newton County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) is looking into a report by a Newton County woman that claims she was scammed out of $2,400 by callers claiming to be Fulton County cops.
According to the NCSO incident report, the woman was contacted on her cellphone and asked for by her last name Monday morning by the scammers. They told her she had missed federal jury duty at the Richard B. Russell Building in downtown Atlanta.
After reportedly identifying themselves as Fulton County police, they told the woman they had a warrant for her arrest and that she needed to pay a fine of $1,200 to avoid being arrested. She was told to purchase Moneypaks and give them the numbers from the backs of the cards.
According to the report, the woman purchased two Moneypaks totaling $1,011.90 and called the suspects. They told her they could not waive the other $200, so she purchased a Green Dot card for $205.
The scammers reportedly told the victim she would need to go to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office because after they received the money, Newton County would have to do some paperwork to get the warrants dropped.
According to the report, when the victim called the card numbers into the suspects, she was told the cards did not work. She then went and purchased three $400 MasterCard gift cards and called those numbers in. She reportedly realized she had been scammed as soon as she hung up.
The victim contacted the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and was reportedly told they could not find any employees with the suspect’s names.
According to the report, when the victim told the suspects what Fulton County had said about not being able to find them as employees, the suspects reportedly said, “Oh, we’re in the fugitive division.”
Newton County Clerk of Courts Linda D. Hays told The Covington News while her office does contact jurors by phone for such things as advising them court is going to be called off, or to ask them to come in early, they would never call asking for money.
“We would never call and ask for money,” she said. “If you receive a call asking for money that is a red flag. It is a scam.”
Hays said anybody who receives that type of call asking for money should report it to NCSO.
