An Oak Bay resident faced with a fake sheriff and false failure to appear for jury duty notice is prompting a fraud warning from police.
Officers were alerted March 12, after someone was contacted by a fraudster posing as a member of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Department, saying they needed to pay a bond to avoid legal consequences of failing to attend jury duty.
The caller transferred the conversation to another individual falsely claiming to be an Oak Bay police officer, the department said in a news release.
The fake cop provided instructions to send money by bitcoin automatic machines at two local locations which made the Oak Bay resident wary. They hung up before any cash exchanged hands.
“We want to remind the public that law enforcement agencies will never demand payment over the phone or request transactions via cryptocurrency or gift cards,” Deputy Chief Deputy Chief Kris Rice said in a news release.
There have been reports of similar scams in Greater Victoria with incidents also reported to the Saanich Police Department, the department said. The scam includes spoofing – making it appear the call is coming from the police department’s non-emergency phone number – which happened in this incident.
Spoofing phone numbers, email addresses and websites are used by fraudsters to convince scam targets they are communicating with legitimate organizations.
The Oak Bay Police Department urges residents to report suspicious calls not provide personal or financial information to unknown callers. Instead, hang up and contact the local police.
Scammers stole $638 million from 34,621 Canadians across the nation in 2024, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Visit https://antifraudcentre.ca/ to learn more about common scams.
