Dougherty Co. Sheriff’s Office warns senior citizens of new phone scams

ALBANY, Ga. – The Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office is putting out a warning as a new string of phone scams are targeting senior citizens in the community.

Chief Deputy, Terron Hayes met with us Wednesday afternoon to discuss this latest string of scams…

With fraudulent calls wanting money on two things:

Missed jury duty and back taxes to the county.

“They’re asking for the Green Dot card. They’re wanting individuals to upload money to a Green Dot card, and send in the information. We’ve had several citizens to be taken advantage of like that. And, we are desperately trying to find these individuals and bring them to justice,” said Chief Deputy Terron Hayes, Dougherty Co. Sheriff’s Office.

Hayes says that for now it’s only been around ten to twenty people who’ve been hit for at most $1800.

But considering this has been the peak of tax season, preying on people trying to pay what they owe is a different level of low.

“…Some people just really don’t know. So, they automatically think ‘I’ve done something wrong, let me right this wrong. Let me pay this money to get this clear.’ So, that’s a huge problem, a huge issue. When you don’t know, you don’t know…” said Chief Deputy Hayes.

And, unfortunately, like most phone scams, the callers are likely coming from outside the country.

“…Once we are actually on to whose doing this, it’s easy for them to change phone numbers, it’s easy for them to have fictitious names. It’s easy for them to really give a lot of bad information and lead us down a wild goose chase basically,” said Chief Deputy Hayes.

Chief Hayes mentions that if you get a call from the “Sheriff’s department” and a “Captain Carter” to hang up immediately.

“…You have people, bad people out here that take advantage of others every day. And, we just don’t want our citizens taken advantage of. We want to do something to stop it and safeguard them from being victims of fraud,” said Chief Deputy Hayes.

And as Chief Hayes reminded us throughout the interview, the sheriff’s office will never ask for money, and you’re encouraged to call the sheriff’s office if you believe you’ve been targeted for a scam.

And, if you believe you’ve been targeted by a scam for money, you can call the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office at 229-302-3600.

Brian Roche reporting.

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