Con artists targeting Spalding County, metro Atlanta residents
Spalding County’s sheriff warned Wednesday that con artists are targeting residents with increasingly familiar scam: demands for payment of fines to quash fictional arrest warrants.
Sheriff Wendell Beam said residents are getting bogus phone calls from people claiming to be part of his office wanting payment for fines.
The caller warns an arrest warrant has been issued for the resident or a family member for missing jury duty. The caller then tells the resident to buy a Green Dot pre-paid debit card and gives the resident a number to call to make payment over the phone.
It is the latest version of a similar scam that hit residents in Gwinnett, Fulton and other metro counties last year. Beam did not indicate the size of the fictional fines but in the Gwinnett cases residents were duped into paying fictional fines of more than $500 and $900.
Similar phone scams have been reported throughout Georgia, some with slight variations, such as the caller claiming that the victim has not paid an outstanding traffic or parking ticket.
