Clarendon County Sheriff's Office warns of phone scam artists posing as law enforcement to extort money

CLARENDON COUNTY - Local authorities are warning residents about phone scam artists who are attempting to extort money from them by posing as local law enforcement agencies.

"The Clarendon County Sheriff's Office takes these attacks on our citizens very seriously and would like everyone to know that law enforcement will never contact anyone and demand money in the place of an individual being arrested," Clarendon County Sheriff Tim Baxley said Tuesday. "Investigators are actively investigating these incidents. If anyone has any information regarding a scam of this type, please contact the Clarendon County Sheriff's Office's Investigation Division at (803) 435-4414."

According to Baxley, at least three incidents of this scam have occurred in Clarendon County within recent weeks. Baxley said that after a call from a victim's spouse, CCSO investigators were able to thwart one scam attempt by stopping the victim while they were en route to transfer money to the scam artist.

One Clarendon County victim told the CCSO that the scam artist called them on their cellphone and talked to them in a "threatening manner." The victim told local authorities that the caller said that they worked for the Sumter County Sheriff's Office and that the victim had a warrant out for their arrest. The caller then asked the victim to load a large sum of money onto a prepaid debit card and to take the card to a location away from the Manning area to transfer the money to another account. By doing this, the victim was told that they would not be arrested.

The victim told authorities that the caller was very believable.

"The victim stated that the scammer was very knowledgeable, used very forceful, articulate language and used names associated with the Sumter County Sheriff's Office," Baxley said. "The scammer also used technology that showed the call was coming from the Sumter County Sheriff's Office."

Baxley said the scammer also told the victim to stay on the phone with them and to make no contact with others in reference to the matter until the transaction was complete.

While this incident was stopped, other victims of this scam have not been so lucky, he said.

Callers need to be vigilant when accepting calls from individuals claiming to represent law enforcement agencies and asking for money.

"We never ask for money, whether it's cash, money order or whatever, over the phone, for anything," Baxley added. "On warrants, we notify them to go to the magistrate's office or the jail."

Baxley said his office has notified Sumter County Sheriff's Office of this incident.