PUNTA GORDA, FL – Recently, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office was notified of phone schemes with callers claiming to be members of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. These schemes are intended to convince the victim that they have outstanding debts or an active warrant and failure to rectify these debts will result in their arrest. The caller may then suggest that the victim purchase prepaid gift cards and provide the card and PIN numbers in order to settle those debts. The scammer may also inquire about your bank account numbers, credit card information, etc.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office members will never call citizens to place them under duress, nor will our staff seek to compel citizens to pay fines or else face arrest. CCSO members will not ask citizens to purchase prepaid products, nor ask citizens for product redemption codes.
“It is my hope that when someone claims to be from CCSO, and then makes a request that doesn’t match the ideals of this office, our citizens can identify that quickly and report it.”
SHERIFF BILL PRUMMELL
If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and asking you to provide any kind of financial information or payment, please discontinue the call immediately. If you are able to record the number from which they are calling, you are encouraged to report the scam attempt to authorities by using this link: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/scam-alerts
Should you be contacted by phone, text, email, social media or otherwise and the initiating party asks, persuades, demands, threatens or mentions a payment method, discontinue communication immediately.
If the correspondence is via email, do not respond, (and never click on external links within a suspicious email) but you may provide the details of the message to our Crime Prevention Specialist using the email below.
To learn more about how to protect yourself from scams, contact our Crime Prevention office at: (941) 613-3227 or email [email protected].
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