Phone call about a warrant? That’s a scam
Scams come in a variety of forms and many are specifically designed to make the victim panic, prompting a knee-jerk reaction that leads to actions that cannot be undone. With scams regarding false warrants for arrest making the rounds in the local community, Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill and Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi are urging residents to understand that notices of warrants and demands for any form of payment are never made by phone call.
“Please, please, please – and I cannot tell you how many times myself and other law enforcement agencies have said this – law enforcement will never call you and tell you that you have a warrant and to go to any place to send money; Walmart card, Bitcoin, Amazon gift cards,” McGill advised this week. “We have people in our community who are losing tens of thousands of dollars on a regular basis. To be honest, there are probably at least five people a week we are hearing from who are saying they were called by [law enforcement]. They even used my name a couple of weeks ago. They use names that are known to people.
“We will never call people,” McGill reiterated. “Any time you receive a phone call from alleged law enforcement – and oftentimes it’ll show up as Nye County Sheriff’s Office on your caller ID - it’s a scam. They are spoofing phone numbers… But we have no recourse because they are always using VPNs and spoof numbers and tracking things that we cannot follow… The moral of this story is, please, everyone in our community who may hear this, do not ever send law enforcement money. They prey on your fear; they’ll say, whatever you do, don’t come down to the station, because we’ll have to arrest you. And all I can say to that is, B.S. Don’t fall for it, please.”
Kunzi added his own cautionary comments as well, explaining that there is a similar scam regarding notices of potential warrants due to failure to appear for jury duty.
“That’s not how we operate,” Kunzi stressed. “The courts don’t operate that way, the sheriff’s office doesn’t operate that way. If you have a warrant out for your arrest, you’ll have somebody knocking on your door with a piece of paper, you’re not getting a telephone call. The public just needs to be very, very careful.”
Anyone with concerns about a phone call from law enforcement should contact the associated agency in person or directly using a publicly known phone number.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 775-751-7000. The Nye County District Attorney’s Office can be reached at 775-751-7080.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
