Scammers claim to be representing sheriff’s office

By Kyle Mooty

LPR Editor

Scammers are always coming up with different schemes that has the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office working on its heels, and one lately has someone claiming to be from the CCSO.

“Our deputies will not call to ask anybody for money,” said Captain Kirk Kuykendoll of the CCSO. “That’s another department altogether.”

One of the scammers went as far as to send a document advising of a failure to appear in court notice and that the person could pay a fine immediately for it to be resolved. The document even had personal information to make it look real.

“We work on them as soon as we get notified about them,” Captain Kuykendoll said. “We got 25 scam-related calls last year and 10 that were pretending to be deputies. When we can get them, we we call back hoping they will answer. Sometimes they answer and sometimes they don’t. A lot of times they will get you to get a prepaid card and when you scratch off the number, they say it doesn’t work so they see if you will do it over and over again. They continue to do so until you catch on or are out of money.”

Captain Kuykendoll said the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Department regularly list scams in the area on its Facebook page. If someone is concerned about a scam call, they can either visit the sheriff’s office or call 512-398-6747.

The scammers will usually give fake numbers or spoof our numbers,” Captain Kuykendoll said. “If we can’t get an email, which is really helpful because we have something to work with, we try to get an IP address or something.”