A new scam is going around using publicly available information for people who have had prior contact with law enforcement stating that they have new warrants for their arrest and attempting to defraud them out of money for a “Security Bond”. The caller pretends to be a law enforcement officer and uses information found on the internet to play on the victim’s sense of fear (of getting in trouble again). The scam plays out that the victim is given a QR code and is then supposed to take cash to a payment kiosk (not the local law enforcement office or the court house) to post the bond. Turns out the kiosk is a Bitcoin ATM, typically at a convenience, liquor or similar store. I was able to verify that this is a scam by contacting the local LEO office(s), verifying that the judge’s name the scammer provided was bogus (doesn’t exist), and other means that are definitive. The scammer uses multiple names, but the one I am familiar with is Captain Todd English with phone numbers 727-201-1010 and 727-232-9958. Would be nice if this could be stopped.
press what number? too many.
For the number ending ing 9958, supposedly ext. 111 was to reach Captain Todd English. Now the recording says that extension leads to Captain Joe Smiley. I was told that Joe Smiley was another “officer” name this scam was using to scare people into paying “Security Bond” money.
@Vedocsic#133462 I got to Todd’s voice mail using 101, but the same number got me to Joe Smiley the time before that, so they are changing it up - probably to avoid call flooding. I’ve been trying to find an angle to use when approaching them though - if they are using public records, then they already know the name of the victim they are trying to reach, and probably won’t just go after anyone who calls randomly.
It’s time to troll kill