West Hollywood station detectives would like to speak with community members that have been contacted by threat based impersonation scammers that claim to be Captain William Moulder from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station. Some common tactics used by the imposters are below.
· Scammers gather information on their potential victims from online sources such as LinkedIn, social media, professional profiles, and online search tools.
· Scammers contact victims by telephone and use the information previously gathered to deceive the victims into thinking the callers are law enforcement officials.
· To make their demands more credible, scammers may spoof phone numbers from West Hollywood station or other government agencies and often use the name of Captain William Moulder or other legitimate government officials.
· They may also threaten the victims with arrest for outstanding warrants.
· They instruct the victims to “resolve” the matter by “posting bail” by sending money with gift cards or cryptocurrency.
· They usually instruct victims to provide gift card codes over the phone or send cryptocurrency to an address provided by the suspect.
· They often demand that the victims stay on the phone until their demands are met.
Please contact Det. Zeff with any information or similar incidents.
