ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents of a phone scam.
The RCSO posted to social media on Saturday saying that there had been calls that morning regarding someone posing as a Sgt. Green and telling the intended victims they had missed jury duty.
“This is a SCAM, we do not have a Sgt. Green and we will not call you asking you to pay any fine or collect any money over the phone, we do not collect fines,” the post concludes.
A similar scam was reported just a month prior.
‘
The post did not specify if home phones or cellphones were being targeted.
Newsweek reported in 2022 that fake jury duty calls were one the top 10 most common telephone scams in the nation. The list also includes scammers purporting to be calling about family emergencies or debt collection, or from the bank, IRS, utilities or charities.
Last year, law enforcement in Richmond County reported both bank and utility scams.
Would-be scammers will often use a method known as “spoofing,” where the telephone number they’re calling from appears on caller ID as being local.
Complaints can be filed with the AG’s office by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or visiting https://ncdoj.gov/file-a-complaint/.
