‘Spider senses were up’: Deputy imposter tries to scam woman with threat of arrest
By Jon Paepcke
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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — The call came to Dee Dee Mathis around 11:45 on Wednesday morning.
The man on the other end told the WVTM 13 sales manager he was with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
He claimed she faced three misdemeanor warrants for skipping out on jury duty and had two paths to resolve the problem.
“Surrendering myself and I would be fingerprinted. I would have mug shots and a criminal record, or I could go the citation route,” Mathis said.
That meant she could pay the fine over the phone.
However, pretty soon, Mathis sensed something was not quite right, and she called their bluff.
“I finally told him, ‘Go ahead and put a warrant out, but I’m not paying you any money,’” Mathis said.
She took detailed notes of the entire exchange and decided to reach out to one of her top county sources for help.
“I knew Commissioner Knight, and I put a call into him and said, you know, hey, Joe, here’s what happened. You know, can you just check this out for me?” Mathis asked Knight.
“Saying, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know this was happening.’ I texted that to the sheriff, and he says, ‘Of course not. No, we don’t call people and say, pay up,’” Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight said.
In fact, the county issued a warning on Facebook about just such scams in April.
Knight says Mathis did the right thing by refusing to pay a suspicious caller over the phone.
“You do that, then they get your credit card information, and they’ll just eat you alive,” Knight said.
Mathis urges us all to never let our scam guard down.
“I would just be on the lookout for that kind of thing. And, when in doubt, I would say, don’t. Just don’t do it,” Mathis said.
Shelby County deputies warning about scam callers impersonating law enforcement This scam has been making the rounds for months.
In addition to Jefferson County, we’ve received similar warnings from Shelby County in March, Cullman County in August and Calhoun County yesterday.
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