By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Scammers are once again attempting to exploit Buchanan County residents by pretending to call from the Buchanan County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Bill Puett says his office has been receiving complaints from citizens about calls coming from the number (816) 320 4426.
"Right now, it appears that we have people who are trying to victimize our citizens again by posing as member of the Sheriff's office and using the Sheriff's office to try to influence them in some way to provide their information and financial access to their accounts," Puett tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Puett says the con artists tells residents they missed federal jury duty. Puett says that's a call his office would never make.
Puett says scare tactics like this are common when it comes to scams.
"They use the authority of the Sheriff's office to try to scare citizens by threatening them with warrants, arrests, and all those things," Puett explains.
Puett says his office has already received several calls about this scam, and he wanted to be sure to spread awareness.
"To make sure everybody knows, because again the threat of the government coming and arresting you is very powerful and that's what these scammers rely on," Puett says.
Puett says if you receive a call like this claiming to be the Sheriff's Department, the best thing to do is just terminate the call
"There's nothing wrong with terminating that call because it is not from an official government agency," Puett points out. "So just terminate the call and don't continue to engage, it's not worth possibly exposing yourself to victimization."
Puett says if you have fallen victim to one of these calls, you should call the Communications Center.