Mar 22, 2018 2 min read

When the Washington County Sheriff’s Department intends to take someone into custody because they have a warrant, they do it in person, and they don’t make phone calls about it in advance.

Sheriff Samuel Romano learned Wednesday of a phone call a man received the day before in which the caller, who identified himself as “Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Walker,” claimed to have an arrest warrant for the call’s recipient for allegedly ignoring jury duty.

The caller asked his intended mark to meet him at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday at the sheriff’s department in the Courthouse Square office building.

Instead of participating in the scam, the target notified the sheriff’s department.

“He was pretty shook up,” said James D’Alessandro, chief deputy sheriff, who exited the office about 25 minutes after that and said no one came knocking or was loitering outside.

A robbery or worse could have ensued if the intended target of the scam and the scammer had met face to face, D’Alessandro said. He speculated the scammer might have intended to produce a fraudulent warrant and claim the victim could be let off by paying a fine.

The phone number used in the scam originated in Beaver Falls, Beaver County, according to the ScamNumbers.info website.

Romano said he had heard of criminals invoking the name of other sheriffs’ departments in the area in similar provocations, and likened the scam to calls from someone posing as an Internal Revenue Service employee demanding immediate payment.

The IRS initiates most contacts through regular mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, according to its website warning about impostors.