Falls Church Sheriff's Office Warns of Scams

PHOTO: City of Falls Church Sheriff Stephen Bittle

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The City of Falls Church Sheriff’s Office is warning the community about several scams going around the Northern Virginia area. Here’s the information from the Sheriff’s Office:

If someone calls claiming to be from the Sheriff’s Office or Police Department, hang up immediately and do not give any identifying information such as your Social Security number, bank account number, credit card number, or password.

You can call the Sheriff’s Office at 703-248-5111 (TTY 711) or the Police Department’s non-emergency line at 703-248-5053 (TTY 711) to ask for verification on any phone calls you receive.

The scam starts with a phone call, email, or posted mail claiming that the resident must make a payment to avoid being arrested. Charges may be for money laundering, bank fraud, missed jury duty, an outstanding warrant arrest, or past due taxes. This is a scam.

Sheriff’s deputies and the police do NOT call residents asking for money or threatening arrest. To add to the confusion, the scammer may use the name of a real sheriff’s deputy or judge, which are easily found on the official websites for the City of Falls Church and Arlington County.

Every year, people lose their life savings to scams and con artists. There are several ways that people can “trick” you out of money, both in person and over the internet. Take some time to educate yourself and your family so you don’t become a victim.

The National Association of Bunco Investigators (NABI) is an organization that assists in the identification, apprehension, and prosecution of Confidence Crime and certain other Non-Traditional Organized Crime group suspects. They provide a list of the more common scams and cons.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) was established as a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) to serve as a means to receive Internet related criminal complaints and to further research, develop, and refer the criminal complaints to federal, state, local, or international law enforcement and/or regulatory agencies. View their compiled list of the more common internet related scams.

A resource for consumer alerts, tips, and fraud trends is the website www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com. This is maintained by a joint federal law enforcement and industry task force. Funding for the site has been provided by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Additional Related Links

• • Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts (Internal Revenue Service)
  • “Warning! Arrest Warrant Scam” (United States Courts)
  • “Scam: Caller Threatens Arrest if You Don’t Pay” (USA Today)