By MATT PIKE

St. Joseph Post

The never-ending threat of scam calls is again affecting Buchanan County using the name of the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Bill Puett says these con artists are using the name of his office to call and intimidate citizens, and Puett wants residents to be aware of the threat.

“We don’t call and demand money, we don’t call and threaten people wtih arrest, we don’t do that, but unfortunately these unscrupulous people will call and threaten our citizens and try to force them into giving them gift cards and all those things,” Puett tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.

Three different variations of scam calls using the name of the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office have been prevalent within the community since last week.

Puett says it’s unclear whether the groups are working together, but says each call revolves around the same type of theme

“It all circles back around to hey you’re in trouble, you’ve done something wrong, you’ve missed jury duty, you have an arrest warrant, you have whatever, please go out and give us gift cards and we will take care of your warrant so you won’t have to appear,” Puett explains.

Puett says the best thing to do if you’re concerned of this after one of these calls, is to hang up and contact his office, and you should never give personal information or debit or credit card numbers over the phone

“We don’t take debit or credit cards over the phone, we don’t accept gift cards, we don’t accept any of that stuff, and so those should be really, really big red flags for people if somebody is saying hey I’m deputy x, or I’m Seargeant or captain or whatever, because they really like to invoke the power of the Sheriff’s office to threaten people,” Puett says.

Puett says his office would never threaten anyone in the first place but unfortunately when people are confronted with losing their freedom, they get scared and want to make things right

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