Robbery scam in the DMV

[Anonymous]

My friend got a call the other day from someone claiming to be from the Alexandria Sheriff’s office (gave his name/station/badge number/etc) saying that he was absent for a court proceeding for which he’d been subpoenaed.  I won’t go into details, but the person called his wife a few weeks prior and they tried to get her to come down to the courthouse.  Given that they had their address, it was a little concerning that the likely thief was trying to get them to leave the house.  They called the Alexandria police and they said this is a very real scam right now.  So watch out!  

[Anonymous]

I thought this was about the Department of Motor Vehicles.

[Anonymous]

The same thing happened to me. They called saying they were from my counties sheriffs office and wanted to know why I didn’t show up for a court appearance. I said nice try and hung up. They called me right back and yelled at me saying, do you know that It’s illegal to hang up on a sheriff? And do you want to get more in trouble than you already are in? Luckily, I’ve heard about it, but I feel like if my mother-in-law had gotten this call she would’ve been really scared.

[Anonymous]

Weird, but it's so easy to get an address, name, birthday on the internet. I don't answer any phone number I don't recognize.

[Anonymous]

This happened in Alexandria last fall too. My neighbor almost fell for it. Her called ID on her cell said Alexandria sheriff, caller said they were a person who actually does work for the sheriff (she googled the name), and told her she needed to bring cash to a western union kiosk at a Walmart down near Mt Vernon (I think the one in Kingstowne). She was convinced it was real and was about to drive there when I called the sheriff dept on speaker phone in front of her and they told her it was a scam.