Scam callers impersonates McLennan County Sheriff’s Office

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Scam calls are on the rise in McLennan County, this time scammers are impersonating sheriff deputies.

On September 5, Jamie Schmitt didn’t expect someone supposedly from the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office to tell her she had three warrants out for her arrest. One of them was failure to appear in court for jury duty.

“They verified my name, the new address and my date of birth. So, it sounded legitimate,” said Schmitt.

But the callers weren’t legitimate at all.

Schmitt knew something was wrong when the callers gave Schmitt three different kiosk locations in Waco and told her she must pay $1,900 within two hours, or she’ll receive another warrant.

Thankfully, she was at the McLennan County Courthouse when she got the call and was able to confirm she didn’t have any warrants.

“I just proceeded to discuss with them what my options were because at that point, I knew it was a scam,” said Schmitt.

Schmitt had deputies at the courthouse listen in on the call hoping to trace it to the scammers.

She said one deputy dialed the number and learned the answering machine said it was the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, further impersonating law enforcement.

“I thought, ‘What about all the individuals in the world being scammed?’ The vulnerable adults that don’t realize because these individuals do sound very authentic and very legitimate. And I just wondered how many were actually at this time being scammed like these were. So, I wanted to catch them,” said Schmitt.

30 calls later, Schmitt still wasn’t budging.

“I finally quit answering the calls, but near the end they were pretty rude and hateful,” said Schmitt.

Schmitt said she wanted to know the locations to the kiosks so she could pass it along to the Sheriff’s Office with the hopes of catching the culprits.

“If it were my parents or grandparents—these individuals sounded so legitimate. At the points where they were getting threatening, it would be very easy for an individual to believe that they needed to do this,” said Schmitt.

The sheriff’s office is still investigating the matter.

The agency said to not fall for situations like this because it will never call individuals asking for money.

They recommend to write the phone number down and call law enforcement immediately.

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