Don't Get Scammed

Don't be taken advantage of or fooled, scams are real and the following are just a few examples of the tricks scam artists use. 
From the Anoka County Sheriff's Office

Click HERE for archived scams

Scams

04.25 The victim stated she received a call from 763-247-2567 from a male posing as Deputy Wilcox from the Anoka County Sheriff's Office and stated he had been trying to reach her because on February 1st she was supposed to receive jury trial papers and someone at the home signed for it on her behalf. The male stated it was a federal class C felony for not showing up for jury duty. She stated the male ended up disconnecting on his own because it wasn't making sense to her, so she asked many questions. I confirmed she did not send him any money, and she said she did not. 

04.24 I met with the complainant who told me that while he was in Arizona for the winter, he started receiving emails from a company called TurboTenant. These emails said his house in Andover was being put up for rent. He received numerous emails from people saying they are interested in renting his property. One person emailed him saying he wanted his money back. The victim has never rented out his home and has never worked with TurboTenant. Today, someone came to his home inquiring about renting the home. The person said the victim was messaging them about renting the home. He told the person it was a scam. The person was not hostile, but it led the victim to call regarding the issue. I advised him to call TurboTenant and report the scam to see if they can shut down the account. 

04.23 The victim received a call around 1430 on 04/23/2024 from 763-247-8150 while she was at work in Anoka, MN. She reported she spoke with two males, one of which identified himself as Lt. Douglas with the Anoka County Sheriff's Office. This male told her the courts had issued two citations for failing to appear in court and gave her two options to resolve the citations. The first option was for her to go to the Anoka County Jail and turn herself in. The second option was for her to pay a voucher through Bit Coin in the amount of $9,500. She went to her bank and withdrew $9,500 in cash. She drove to the Cub Foods in Champlin and deposited the money into the Bit Coin machine.  After depositing the money, the male told her to report to the Sheriff's Office to speak with someone at the front desk. When she arrived at the Sheriff's Office, the male had hung up the phone and she realized this was a scam. 

04.22 Business: A store manager made a report regarding an individual identified as "JJ" who claimed to be the franchise owner, who called the store requesting an employee to deposit money into an account at Walgreens. The employee reported that "JJ" called the store again and requested the shift lead to take money out of the till and deposit it into an account. Employees could tell something wasn't right, so he played along with the male on the phone. The caller than told the employee that the male on the phone admitted it was a scam and said he does this to several businesses in the area. The male claimed to get employees to deposit money by agreeing to split the money if they deposit half of the amount. A phone number for "JJ" is 334-315-3556. 

04.19 The victim received emails from a fraudulent account posing as Xfinity. The email wanted her to "verify" credit account information. She checked the email and found it did not come from Xfinity, but a spoof email. She then tried to access her Wells Fargo account and found the two-factor authentication was disabled and her PIN was not available. She advised she was working with her bank and Xfinity to protect her information and there has not been any loss at this point. 

04.15 The victim advised that her husband received a phone call and text message from 832-891-3939 that was threatening. She advised me that the message stated something to the effect of, "this is Tony I'm shaking you down because you messed with a girl of mine." The phone call and message stated that he was going to kill his family if he did not pay him money. The victim stated she was concerned because the person calling had all there information and address. I advised her that there have been scams going around to try and convince people into giving money and to obtain more information from them. I advised her to monitor their banking information and accounts as well. 

04.12 The victim received a direct message via Instagram from Lauren_Dominique_gallery. In the message, the sender requested to use a photo of the victim for their gallery. They informed her they would pay her for the use of the photo. She had multiple messages with the user and agreed to the use of the photo. She received a $1,000 check but was only supposed to be paid $500. She made a mobile deposit with her bank. She said the check cleared and the money was posted to her account. She was instructed to send the extra $500 back. She sent the money via Zelle. She then received another overpayment $1,000 check and again made a mobile deposit to her bank account. This time she was given instructions to send $500 to Raynard Beckford. She was in contact with her bank after having a difficult time sending the money. As she was on the phone with her bank, she said her account went to a negative balance of $1,682.00. She was informed the checks were possibly fakes and this was most likely a scam.

04.11 The victim sent an inappropriate picture to an unknown “woman” on Instagram. He was blackmailed and sent money on the Monkey App.  
04.11 The victim met a woman on FB Dating. She mentioned how she became wealthy off cryptocurrency and investing and showed him screenshots of having $800,000 in her account. She provided him with information and told him he should move his crypto into the blockchain web app and she could help him. He stated to make sure it was legitimate he transferred $75 of his crypto into the app and then requested it back to make sure he could move the crypto back and forth and the transaction was successful. He then put in $5K from another account into the service app account to the blockchain-webapp account. He watched his account and noticed he profited around $2,000 over three weeks. He stated yesterday morning he went to check his account and it appeared he suddenly lost all access to the app. He told the woman he was having issues with the app and asked her to send him the app's contact information but she was passive about his request and told him he must have done something wrong. It turned out the FB profile was fake.  

04.08 There were 7 reports similar to this: The victim stated she received a voicemail from Sgt. Myers* with our office that asked her to call him back. She called the number he provided and was told that she owed $2,400 for a contempt of court warrant and $2,400.67 for a failure to appear warrant. It should be noted that they used her maiden name. She was further told she needed to stay on the phone with him and not tell anyone else and proceed to the sheriff's office. She then received a phone call from a second male who stated he was Sgt. Kerr* and he had reiterated that she had warrants and needed to pay them off. This male stated the warrants were tied to her old address in St. Paul. She called 911. There is no Sgt. Myers or Kerr with the sheriff's office and the victim does not have any warrants. *names vary. 

04.05 The victim received an email saying there was a virus on her computer. She called the number in the email. She gave the scammer access to her computer remotely. The victim was told it would cost $40 to repair. The scammer told her he accidently sent her $40,000 instead of taking $40 and that she would be in trouble if she didn't pay the money back. The victim went to her bank and withdrew $25,000 in cash and was supposed to send the money to an address in CA. The victim called law enforcement first and a deputy responded. The deputy spoke with the scammer and told him that we were now investigating the incident and he hung up. We contacted both her banks and they advised us no money was taken out of her accounts. The victim was told to come to the bank to return the money and make new accounts. The deputy unplugged her WIFI and turned off her computer. 

Archived Scams~

January 
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December