Scam alert

Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office

The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office received information regarding a scam. A citizen received a phone call from 800-943-2189 and the caller claimed to be an employee of the Caldwell County Jail. The caller told the citizen that a friend of his was in jail again and needed bond money to get out. The caller asked the citizen for his credit card information.

The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office will never call you and request your credit card information over the phone.

People lose a lot of money to phone scams — sometimes their life savings. Scammers have figured out countless ways to cheat you out of your money over the phone. In some scams, they act friendly and helpful. In others, they might threaten or try to scare you. One thing you can count on is that a phone scammer will try to get your money or your personal information to commit identity theft.

How to Stop Calls

from Scammers

Hang up.

Even if it’s not a scammer calling, when a company is calling you illegally, it’s not a company you want to do business with. When you get a robocall, don’t press any numbers. Instead of letting you speak to a live operator or remove you from their call list, it might lead to more robocalls.

Consider call blocking or call labeling

Scammers can use the internet to make calls from all over the world. They don’t care if you’re on the National Do Not Call Registry. That’s why your best defense against unwanted calls is call blocking. Which type of call-blocking or call-labeling technology you use will depend on the phone — whether it’s a cell phone, a traditional landline, or a home phone that makes calls over the internet (VoIP). See what services your phone carrier offers and look online for expert reviews. For cell phones, you also can check out the reviews for different call-blocking apps in your online app store.

Don’t trust your caller ID Scammers can make any name or number show up on your caller ID. That’s called spoofing. So even if it looks like it’s a government agency like the Social Security Administration calling, or like the call is from a local number, it could be a scammer calling from anywhere in the world