Someone Impersonating A Cheyenne Police Officer To Scam People
Cheyenne Police say someone is impersonating a police officer as part of a phone scam.
That's according to a post on the Cheyenne Police Department Facebook page. According to the post, the scammer is calling people up and claiming to be Lt. Joel Hickerson and demanding payment for supposed outstanding warrants.
While Lt. Hickerson is an actual CPD officer, he is not making the calls.
The caller asks the intended victims to make the payments using gift cards. According to the post:
We will never call you to advise you that you have a warrant.Warrants are something that must be resolved in person, not over the phone.No legitimate government entity accepts gift cards as payment.\The fake warrant scam is not new and has been widely used across the country. Variations on the scam in other communities have featured the caller claiming that the intended victim was supposed to report for jury duty and now has a warrant for failure to do so.
Another variant has the caller pretending to be with the Internal Revenue Service and threatening victims with arrest for supposed back taxes. It's worth noting that the IRS contacts delinquent taxpayers by registered mail not by phone call. There is also a process for going after people who owe taxes, and delinquent taxpayers are not simply arrested out of the blue without due process.
Another thing to keep in mind is that no governmental agency, be it local law enforcement or the IRS, accepts payment in the form of gift cards.
Meet the Four-Legged Heroes of the Cheyenne Police Department
They may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but make no bones about it, police dogs play a vital role in the fight against crime.
In many situations, they're the first ones to put their lives on the line to protect their human partners, proving that not all heroes wear capes, some wear fur coats.
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