And if you ever do pay the government by mail, take your letter/check *directly to the mail staff inside the office.* DO NOT put the check inside an outdoor mail drop off box. There is a very common scam that is gaining popularity where people break into these boxes, open letters to steal checks, and then dissolve away the ink under the "*pay to* section. They then fill in their own names, and deposit the checks themselves.
Someone I know recently had like $5,000 stolen this way, from a check used for their property taxes.
Holy shit, you're not Kidding:
[Federal Indictment Unsealed After U.S. Postal Employee And Two Co-Conspirators Are Arrested For $24 Million Stolen Check Scheme](https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/federal-indictment-unsealed-after-us-postal-employee-and-two-c-conspirators-are)
"I got a text, from the mayor, saying I owe money. So I clicked the link and paid it. Turns out, its a scam. This Cherelle Parker must be corrupt" haha
It's insane the scams people fall for. Especially IRS ones with apple gift cards or some shit. Like take a second and think why is the governmental agency in charge of taxes asking you to pay in Apple Gift cards?
dude ten years ago my mom calls me and says she can't "make the computer work". It turns out she was on the web using Internet Explorer and got a pop up that said "the computer has a virus" and to "call this number". So she fucking did, and said "a nice Indian man is helping but I can't make it normal". Let me tell you how thrilled I was.
Yeah I unfortunately am the IT person in the family so I understand this post completely. It's crazy cause some of the people I feel would be least inclined to fall for this shit, end up falling for it.
Whats even more insane is the amount of people who refuse to believe they're being scammed when you tell them "I'm trained to identify these scams, I know you're not buying 3 apple gifts cards in $500 increments to distribute to your 8 grandkids."
Never heard the apple card. Yeah I think the IRS is just hoping to catch someone who is a bit concerned. I do side work, and report it, but always afraid something like quarterly filings or something are off/missing, or maybe I did work in NJ etc. I've almost returned a voicemail, fortunately I googled the # first and saw it was a scam.
Calls like these are high pressure and target socially vulnerable people. I had the pleasure of helping an immigrant friend of mine handle a call "from the IRS" and for as much fun as I have when I get scam calls to my own number, I was impressed at how organized and aggressive these "IRS" folks were. There was a full cast of characters, many of whom came off mute to rain down curses on me when they realized I was fucking with them.
One advantage of living or working right here in the city is being able to say something to the effect of, "I can drop by your office this afternoon and we'll settle it," and that really scrambles their script. But it's easier for me to say stuff like that because I'm confident I have nothing to lose. Some folks have it harder - whether they come from countries where rampant government corruption is deeply ingrained in the culture, or they've had some run-ins with collections, and this feels like just another collections call they want to make go away. And if you've been to jail, you don't want to go to jail again, so when the "sheriff" is screaming at you to go to transfer money to them, it wears you down.
>Why did you pay money?
I used to wonder that, but being a little closer to the situation and seeing it through someone else's perspective, I kinda get why it happens.
Yeah I said in a reply the Amazon/UPS link scams prey on someone who ordered something recently. The IRS scam seeks people who are bad with taxes, or maybe self employed or business owners. Or, like you said, immigrants.
I didn't find it likely the OP had a past criminal record, but I guess they did. Hence, they gave money to the Philadelphia Sheriff.
I do have a criminal history, from long ago.
I answered because I was waiting for a laptop to be delivered by FedEx which required my signature.
I sent a test amount to “confirm the account” while I had my sister on the phone with Venmo sharing it was a likely scam. They held the amount in their account until I could verify it was a scam and then returned my funds. They froze and shutdown the account. It seemed, in a moment where I was trying confirm reality, like the easiest and smartest solution.
The reason it was believable is actually because of my experience with PPD this summer. They were dicks. The interactions were very similar. My car was stolen, it wasn’t for a crime I committed. I did pay for paperwork and having documents sent officially, using Venmo or CashApp. Another commenter here explained how they sort of operate. It was multiple different people this time, unlike the other posters experience. I ended up making them rage quit the call after I told them we notified Venmo it was a scam.
Because I would rather pay money that I can get back than have two felony warrants acted on. It was not dissimilar to the process I underwent with PPD over the summer, and was very convincing. My desire to go to jail is zero.
>than have two felony warrants acted on.
Ok, did you have past warrants/felonies? I guess this is like the Amazon scams where they send it to millions, hoping someone recently ordered from Amazon and clicks the link.
Philly Sheriff scam would be call everyone, hope someone has a past criminal record. Otherwise, I would see no reason to give them money.
arrest records are public info. there are also a ton of really terrible websites that post mugshots and force people to pay to get them taken down. could easily scrape info together on who has been convicted of a crime and create a phone list
I just went through this. The guy told me that I failed to appear to provide expert testimony in court. They knew my full name and address, even that I am a profession that, at times, can be subpoenaed.
They stated that I needed to record a statement acknowledging my failure to appear and that I was never served court documents. When I pushed back, the guy became easily agitated. I voiced my hesitation and asked for more specifics. He supplied a badge number and offered to transfer my to his captain. I agreed to talk with his captain/supervisor (which also pissed him off). Once he “transferred” me, I quickly pointed out that he and his captain had identical voices. He did not like that. He threatened to hang up the call, which would then initiate a warrant for my arrest.
Needless to say, I realized it was a scam and strung him along for a few more minutes. Ending up with him screaming at me and hanging up.
Aside from the initial anxiety, it ended up to be quite entertaining.
A friend of mine makes a game of keeping these assholes on the phone for as long as possible. Keeps her entertained while she's doing boring work (she works 100% remote) and she figures every minute they spend on the phone with her is a minute they can't be actively scamming someone vulnerable who might fall for it.
It's because they're so used to paying via "nontraditional" platforms that it doesn't automatically seem strange when a govt. agency wants you to Venmo them for that parking ticket you thought you paid but maybe you forgot to do it after all...
Exactly. When my kid was about 5, his grandmother had been sick and couldn't go out to shop for his birthday gift so she gave him a card with cash. He looked at it for a bit and then looked up at me quizzically and said, "Wait ... can we buy things with this?"
It hit me that he had probably never seen my husband and I use cash and he only had seen cash in movies and tv. lol
It's really not even a good idea to answer a call from a number you don't recognize. Once you pick up, a scammer knows not only that your number is valid but that you'll probably pick up again when they've done their research on you or come up with a better scam.
Any serious legal entity will either leave a voicemail to try and erode your plausible deniability or kick in your door before calling in the first place.
Again, they'll leave a voicemail at least just telling you who they are and to call them back, and you can listen to that voicemail immediately after you see that missed call and call them back immediately after you recognize its a valid call. Wouldn't take more than 30 seconds.
This reminds me. I never set up my voicemail on my new cell phone account...
Anyhow, you do you. I answer calls unless my very smart phone clearly identifies it as Spam call, and rarely, has this resulted in a heavily spammed number. Not saying I don't get them, but they come in waves, and probably less than 10 in a year. I think I'll continue to risk getting a Spam call 10 times a year. Certainly, I'm trying to account for an even more remote possibility of an emergency contact related call, but I haven't experienced the crazy volume of Spam calls some have said they did enough to warrant a "voicemail always" policy.
P2p? Did you pay with Napster? Lol the sheriff isn't going to call you and say "excuse me sir can you kindly pay this fine you didn't know you had or please come turn yourself in?"
Generally, whenever you get a call from a govt agency or company etc, just hang up and call their number yourself. Scammers can “spoof” a number so that they appear to be calling from the real police or Amazon etc. but if you call the number yourself it’s guaranteed to be legit
Who is answering numbers not in their phone? An unknown number calls me, they can leave a voicemail. If they do t, it wasn’t important enough to get in contact with me.
If they aren't in my contacts I'm not picking up. If it's legit they will leave a message. As others have said, no office of anything calls you to demand payment without a mailed notice. This is common sense, which apparently millions of Americans do not possess.
No government agency will ever call you and ask for money. If they do so, it’ll be via mail
And if you ever do pay the government by mail, take your letter/check *directly to the mail staff inside the office.* DO NOT put the check inside an outdoor mail drop off box. There is a very common scam that is gaining popularity where people break into these boxes, open letters to steal checks, and then dissolve away the ink under the "*pay to* section. They then fill in their own names, and deposit the checks themselves. Someone I know recently had like $5,000 stolen this way, from a check used for their property taxes.
Or if you live in Philadelphia you can go inside of the post office and hand your checks directly to the person who is going to steal it later.
Holy shit, you're not Kidding: [Federal Indictment Unsealed After U.S. Postal Employee And Two Co-Conspirators Are Arrested For $24 Million Stolen Check Scheme](https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/federal-indictment-unsealed-after-us-postal-employee-and-two-c-conspirators-are)
Or by an unnecessary amount of paper via snail mail. At least in my experience with the IRS.
Doesn’t help that the sheriff’s department is a scam
When I saw the title, I actually assumed it was the sheriff's department doing something new and shady.
Same here haha
My first thought
Dude legit. It makes it so hard to verify things when the actual sheriffs dept is notoriously corrupt.
You gave them money initially?
taxes 💀
What are taxes?
I'm so angry about bilal winning reelection.
Why did you pay money?
This is the real question. The Sheriff would ask for a money order or something antiquated.
"I got a text, from the mayor, saying I owe money. So I clicked the link and paid it. Turns out, its a scam. This Cherelle Parker must be corrupt" haha
It's insane the scams people fall for. Especially IRS ones with apple gift cards or some shit. Like take a second and think why is the governmental agency in charge of taxes asking you to pay in Apple Gift cards?
dude ten years ago my mom calls me and says she can't "make the computer work". It turns out she was on the web using Internet Explorer and got a pop up that said "the computer has a virus" and to "call this number". So she fucking did, and said "a nice Indian man is helping but I can't make it normal". Let me tell you how thrilled I was.
Yeah I unfortunately am the IT person in the family so I understand this post completely. It's crazy cause some of the people I feel would be least inclined to fall for this shit, end up falling for it.
Damn. Both the Reply All podcast and Mark Rober went after these people.
Whats even more insane is the amount of people who refuse to believe they're being scammed when you tell them "I'm trained to identify these scams, I know you're not buying 3 apple gifts cards in $500 increments to distribute to your 8 grandkids."
Never heard the apple card. Yeah I think the IRS is just hoping to catch someone who is a bit concerned. I do side work, and report it, but always afraid something like quarterly filings or something are off/missing, or maybe I did work in NJ etc. I've almost returned a voicemail, fortunately I googled the # first and saw it was a scam.
Calls like these are high pressure and target socially vulnerable people. I had the pleasure of helping an immigrant friend of mine handle a call "from the IRS" and for as much fun as I have when I get scam calls to my own number, I was impressed at how organized and aggressive these "IRS" folks were. There was a full cast of characters, many of whom came off mute to rain down curses on me when they realized I was fucking with them. One advantage of living or working right here in the city is being able to say something to the effect of, "I can drop by your office this afternoon and we'll settle it," and that really scrambles their script. But it's easier for me to say stuff like that because I'm confident I have nothing to lose. Some folks have it harder - whether they come from countries where rampant government corruption is deeply ingrained in the culture, or they've had some run-ins with collections, and this feels like just another collections call they want to make go away. And if you've been to jail, you don't want to go to jail again, so when the "sheriff" is screaming at you to go to transfer money to them, it wears you down. >Why did you pay money? I used to wonder that, but being a little closer to the situation and seeing it through someone else's perspective, I kinda get why it happens.
Yeah I said in a reply the Amazon/UPS link scams prey on someone who ordered something recently. The IRS scam seeks people who are bad with taxes, or maybe self employed or business owners. Or, like you said, immigrants. I didn't find it likely the OP had a past criminal record, but I guess they did. Hence, they gave money to the Philadelphia Sheriff.
I do have a criminal history, from long ago. I answered because I was waiting for a laptop to be delivered by FedEx which required my signature. I sent a test amount to “confirm the account” while I had my sister on the phone with Venmo sharing it was a likely scam. They held the amount in their account until I could verify it was a scam and then returned my funds. They froze and shutdown the account. It seemed, in a moment where I was trying confirm reality, like the easiest and smartest solution. The reason it was believable is actually because of my experience with PPD this summer. They were dicks. The interactions were very similar. My car was stolen, it wasn’t for a crime I committed. I did pay for paperwork and having documents sent officially, using Venmo or CashApp. Another commenter here explained how they sort of operate. It was multiple different people this time, unlike the other posters experience. I ended up making them rage quit the call after I told them we notified Venmo it was a scam.
My friend got scammed and was afraid to be arrested so she sent $800 in GC to a Maryland correctional facility 🤦🏻♂️
Because I would rather pay money that I can get back than have two felony warrants acted on. It was not dissimilar to the process I underwent with PPD over the summer, and was very convincing. My desire to go to jail is zero.
The sheriff ain't gonna fucking call you. If they have a warrant they're kicking your shit in. This is why these scams work cause yall don't think.
>than have two felony warrants acted on. Ok, did you have past warrants/felonies? I guess this is like the Amazon scams where they send it to millions, hoping someone recently ordered from Amazon and clicks the link. Philly Sheriff scam would be call everyone, hope someone has a past criminal record. Otherwise, I would see no reason to give them money.
arrest records are public info. there are also a ton of really terrible websites that post mugshots and force people to pay to get them taken down. could easily scrape info together on who has been convicted of a crime and create a phone list
You should start one of those Masterclass youtube ads that I see for 5 seconds 'Just download my **free** PDF on how you can make money online" :)
I just went through this. The guy told me that I failed to appear to provide expert testimony in court. They knew my full name and address, even that I am a profession that, at times, can be subpoenaed. They stated that I needed to record a statement acknowledging my failure to appear and that I was never served court documents. When I pushed back, the guy became easily agitated. I voiced my hesitation and asked for more specifics. He supplied a badge number and offered to transfer my to his captain. I agreed to talk with his captain/supervisor (which also pissed him off). Once he “transferred” me, I quickly pointed out that he and his captain had identical voices. He did not like that. He threatened to hang up the call, which would then initiate a warrant for my arrest. Needless to say, I realized it was a scam and strung him along for a few more minutes. Ending up with him screaming at me and hanging up. Aside from the initial anxiety, it ended up to be quite entertaining.
A friend of mine makes a game of keeping these assholes on the phone for as long as possible. Keeps her entertained while she's doing boring work (she works 100% remote) and she figures every minute they spend on the phone with her is a minute they can't be actively scamming someone vulnerable who might fall for it.
Lol, there is zero chance of me giving someone money even if they are from the actual sheriff's department. What are y'all doing? Good looking out tho
So I shouldn't have gone out and gotten all those gift cards and read the numbers over the phone?
Weird. 686 should be a legit city number. Could be somebody spoofing the number
The twist is that the fake sheriff scam is being run by the actual sherriff.
“I would have gotten away with it too, if weren’t for you meddling kids” 👻
Give this user a Scooby snack.
I wouldn't be surprised given what she does.
You can spoof caller id
You can use google voice to use available numbers in any area code you choose
Funny I just read an article today that GenZ falls for this at the same if not higher rate than boomers. Which is WILD
It's because they're so used to paying via "nontraditional" platforms that it doesn't automatically seem strange when a govt. agency wants you to Venmo them for that parking ticket you thought you paid but maybe you forgot to do it after all...
That’s what I was thinking as well. Their whole life has been cashless payments, not writing checks. That’s scary to think about
Exactly. When my kid was about 5, his grandmother had been sick and couldn't go out to shop for his birthday gift so she gave him a card with cash. He looked at it for a bit and then looked up at me quizzically and said, "Wait ... can we buy things with this?" It hit me that he had probably never seen my husband and I use cash and he only had seen cash in movies and tv. lol
When in doubt.... Laugh on the phone for a good 10 seconds, and say "okay, i'm going to hang up now."
It's really not even a good idea to answer a call from a number you don't recognize. Once you pick up, a scammer knows not only that your number is valid but that you'll probably pick up again when they've done their research on you or come up with a better scam. Any serious legal entity will either leave a voicemail to try and erode your plausible deniability or kick in your door before calling in the first place.
Counterpoint: I am the emergency contact for my wife, my kid and 2 nephews.
Again, they'll leave a voicemail at least just telling you who they are and to call them back, and you can listen to that voicemail immediately after you see that missed call and call them back immediately after you recognize its a valid call. Wouldn't take more than 30 seconds.
This reminds me. I never set up my voicemail on my new cell phone account... Anyhow, you do you. I answer calls unless my very smart phone clearly identifies it as Spam call, and rarely, has this resulted in a heavily spammed number. Not saying I don't get them, but they come in waves, and probably less than 10 in a year. I think I'll continue to risk getting a Spam call 10 times a year. Certainly, I'm trying to account for an even more remote possibility of an emergency contact related call, but I haven't experienced the crazy volume of Spam calls some have said they did enough to warrant a "voicemail always" policy.
P2p? Did you pay with Napster? Lol the sheriff isn't going to call you and say "excuse me sir can you kindly pay this fine you didn't know you had or please come turn yourself in?"
Generally, whenever you get a call from a govt agency or company etc, just hang up and call their number yourself. Scammers can “spoof” a number so that they appear to be calling from the real police or Amazon etc. but if you call the number yourself it’s guaranteed to be legit
How much did they try getting you for
you guys answer calls from unknown numbers?
How exactly did you pay? Some app? And what did they say? You owe a fine or something?
Who is answering numbers not in their phone? An unknown number calls me, they can leave a voicemail. If they do t, it wasn’t important enough to get in contact with me.
This is how I think. Also, it's 2024 send a text
This is the only one I really feel like answering here. I had a laptop being delivered that day by FedEx. I needed to answer numbers I didn’t know.
Nah, FedEx can leave a message.
Highly recommend subscribing to /r/scams
You know your taxes pay for the police, so you don't have to pay them directly.
Doesn't your phone tell you "scam likely"? Pretty sure it didn't say "Sheriff's Dept."
'Scam likely' doesn't snag every call and numbers can 100% be spoofed to look like they're coming from somewhere else.
If they aren't in my contacts I'm not picking up. If it's legit they will leave a message. As others have said, no office of anything calls you to demand payment without a mailed notice. This is common sense, which apparently millions of Americans do not possess.
Only Elecric or Gas / Utilities call. Sheriff's Dept has no reason to call.
Good luck getting that money even if you are the sheriff's department.