CLEVELAND — Scammers are using the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department’s name to try to get your money. Here’s the big warning you need to know about.
It all started with a strange phone call that sounded legit at first. “My first thought was, 'what did I do?'” said John Stealey from northeast Ohio. He told us the call came in while he was driving, and it went to voicemail. He then read the transcript of the voice message. “It sounded incredibly legit,” said Stealey.
Here’s part of the message he heard. “Good afternoon. This is Lt. Justin Branberry calling with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office Civil Services Division.”
That name, Lt. Justin Branberry, will be quite significant in just a moment.
But first, Stealey said he did some digging. “The email addresses (the caller left) were not legit. I looked them up. The website that was on there was not legit,” said Stealey.
And it turns out that other law enforcement across the country have been dealing with the same kind of call. In Arizona, scammers even used the same name, posting a warning on its Facebook page. “Good morning. This is Lt. Justin Branberry calling from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department Civil Services Division,” could be heard from the message there. It’s happened in Florida and other parts of the U.S. as well. “Again, this is Lt. Justin Branberry and you may reach me at extension 2 for the civil service division,” could be heard from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page in Florida.
“They’re meant to be really confusing. There’s a lot of information coming at you,” said Sheryl Harris who is the Director of the Department of Cuyahoga County Consumer Affairs. “The (scammers) sound very professional like they could be cops,” said Harris. “Sometimes they give badge numbers. They may give case numbers and that kind of adds to this illusion of authority.”
She told us they just got a call where scammers hit one local person when a guy said he was an agent doing an investigation. “We just got one today from a woman who lost $3,000. That was her entire Social Security check,” she told us.
Harris said the sheriff’s department won’t call you. They will come to your house or send you a letter.
Thankfully, Stealey didn’t call the scam number and didn’t lose money, but he did come forward wanting to warn others. “I have a 92-year-old mother-in-law and she could very easily fall for something like this. Because at initial glance, I fell for it, too,” said Stealey.
Remember, with any phone call that you’re not familiar with, be careful. Take a breath, research the person who’s called, and report suspicious activity.
