Full Notification

It has come to our attention that some community members have received phone calls today from scammers pretending to be law enforcement. We'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that no law enforcement agency EVER calls you to let you know you have a warrant for your arrest or to demand payment for said "bail" or citation.
To make this scam more believable, scammers will "spoof" legitimate phone numbers to look like the call is actually coming from the law enforcement agency they are claiming to be from. While law enforcement may call you for a number of real reasons, it will NEVER be to collect money.

Today's instance involved someone claiming to be a Sergeant with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and then passed the "victim" on to someone who claimed to be a "Lt. Pak". Lt. Pak is an actual person who is employed with our department, not the Sheriff's, but there would be no reason for this type of transfer to occur, nor would our Lt. Pak attempt to swindle you out of money.

Please be aware of these types of scams, especially when someone is asking for money. Always call back the supposed law enforcement agency or business through a direct line you find yourself and not a phone number provided by the person attempting to collect payment. In most cases, you should know if you owe money, and if there is a serious attempt to collect payment from you for something legitimate, there is generally always some alternate type of documentation generally in the form of mail.

*Another quick tip is that if someone is accepting payment via a gift card, bitcoin/crypto, gold coins, or wire transfers, that is a clear sign you're dealing with a scammer.