During the past few days the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department has received complaints that scammers posing as county deputies are calling and asking for money.

Maj. Marc Ogden said reports state the scammer is calling local residents and attempting to convince them into giving him money because they have outstanding warrants.

“He’s calling people saying they have warrants they need to pay, and to take care of it they can go get some kind of money card and to send him the number and the pin,” said Ogden.

Ogden says this happens once or twice a year. So far this year, it’s occurred twice.

“There’s probably a lot more, there are people out there that don’t entertain it and hang up,” he said.

Investigators with the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department are not currently investigating the issue at the moment because Ogden said the scam calls typically come from out of the country. In this case it’s out of the Sheriff’s Department jurisdiction.

“The best we can do is let everybody know that this is occurring and please do not fall for it,” Ogden said.

The Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department took to Facebook to deter local residents from falling for the scam.

The post reads as follows, “Public Service Announcement, someone has been calling and posing as a Pearl River County Deputy and is telling people they have outstanding warrants. He is trying to get people to send money to keep from going to jail. Do not fall for this con, we do not contact anyone by phone and ask for money. One of the numbers he is using is 228-313-2792. Be aware and do not send any money. If you ever want to verify a deputy’s identity please call 601-749-5482.”

Scammers have the capability to make look like the call is coming from a local number through spoofing software. Some scammers even claim to be with Amazon or the IRS, or may attempt to get money from people through social media. Over the phone scam calls are the most popular form in this region.

Ogden said he receives about 15 calls a day that he suspects are scams.

“There’s all kind of scams and people more times than not fall for them and it ends up costing them money and again we have no jurisdiction over it because all of the ones we have found or tried to look at are from out of the country,” he said.

Ogden reminds county residents that if someone claiming to be from any law enforcement agency calls and says, “you have a warrant” or “someone is using your identify” or asks for any type of money or anything of that nature, then it is a scam.

“Law enforcement, do not contact people by phone and receive payment by prepaid card. We do not ask for social security numbers, dates of birth, we do not ask for credit card numbers. We do not ask for any information like that,” Ogden said. “We will never ever ask for money over the phone.”

He advises anyone who may hear any of those statements or questions during an unsolicited call, they need to hang up.

Anyone who feels they’ve been scammed should contact their bank and file a report as soon as possible.

To prevent being scammed, Ogden suggests not answering any calls from an unrecognizable caller ID or phone number.