Woman scammed out of $500 by caller posing as Houston sheriff's deputy

A woman was scammed out of $500 by a caller who identified himself as a Houston County sheriff's deputy.

The incident happened Saturday afternoon, according to a sheriff's incident report.

The victim received a telephone call and was told that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for failure to appear for jury duty Dec. 9 and that she needed to pay a $500 fine or face arrest, the report said.

The caller told the woman to get a pre-paid card from a Dollar General on Ga. 127 and then drive to the courthouse in Perry. He asked her for her cell phone number to allow him to track her, the report said.

While her husband was driving her to the courthouse, the man posing as the sheriff's deputy again called and asked her to give him the number on the pre-paid card, and she complied. That's when she realized she'd been scammed and called authorities, the report said.

Houston County sheriff's Lt. Dave Carrick said the scam resurfaces from time to time and generally operates in the same way.

The impersonator asks the victim to obtain a prepaid card for a specific amount of cash to avoid an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court or failing to comply with a jury summons.

The victim is asked for the security number of the card. In some cases, the victim is asked to wire the money to an unknown location or meet the impersonator to hand over the cash.

In the cases, the victims have no outstanding issues with Houston County authorities.

"These people are very convincing," Houston County sheriff's Capt. Jon Holland has said about such scams. "In some cases, one person will call and say, 'Let me put you through to Capt. So and So', and they'll actually pass the phone to another person."

Holland said the sheriff's office is not going to tell someone to wire money, meet anywhere on the road or get a prepaid card.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Becky Purser, call 478-256-9559, or find her on Twitter@becpurser.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Woman scammed out of $500 by caller posing as Houston sheriff's deputy ."