Ada County Sheriff’s Office deputies will never call and threaten to arrest you because you missed jury duty.
Deputies will also never ask you to place funds for payment on a pre-paid credit card to “cancel the arrest warrant” for missing that phony jury duty or some other made-up charge.
Anyone who calls, says they are from the ACSO, and asks for your money to prevent an arrest is not from the ACSO. They are scammers.
This is a variation of the same scam that has plagued Boise residents numerous times over the past three years.
Over a dozen Ada County residents reported getting phone calls this week from scammers pretending to work for the Ada County Sheriff’s Office.
In most recent cases, the scam caller identifies himself as an Ada County Sheriff’s deputy and requests personal information so he can clear the person’s name and cancel the mythical “arrest warrant.”
The mythical amount people “owe” has been anywhere from $500 to $4,000.
The scammers usually tell their victims to go to a store, get a pre-paid credit card (like a Green Dot), load it up with money, and then call a phone number with the card information.
In some calls, the scammers just ask for your personal credit card numbers.
The scammers acquire phone numbers with a 208 area code to make the scam seem more credible.
The process is called “caller ID spoofing” and it’s getting more and more prevalent. The calls can appear to come from local businesses, a government agency, or even friends — but it’s really someone trying to get you to answer the phone.
The scammers get the numbers and make the calls using the internet, making them very hard to trace.
The Better Business Bureau is aware of the scam and says people can protect themselves from becoming victims of identify theft by never giving out any personal information when getting an unsolicited phone call.
Giving out sensitive information over the phone — both personal and financial — can put you at risk for fraud.
If you did miss jury duty in Ada County, you would get a letter in the mail. No one from the ACSO will ever ask for a credit card number to pay any kind of fine over the phone.
If you have received one of these scam phone calls, contact the Ada County Sheriff’s Office at 377-6790 or the Better Business Bureau online at BBB.org.