Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and others warn of phone and social media scams

ROCKINGHAM The public is being alerted to yet another phone scam by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.

Many residents reported receiving phone calls from a fictitious deputy, some claiming to be the chief deputy, according to a Facebook post made by the sheriff’s office last week.

The message warns that we are not phoning any of our residents to demand money or to let them know they have warrants, and it also advises against providing any personal information to scammers.

Scam alerts are issued by the RCSO almost monthly.

The sheriff’s office shared a picture in October that showed how to spot fake posts on social media.

Many of these mention a reported lost child, a found pet, or an elderly person and are placed in neighborhood yard sale groups. Others are for rental homes. It is common for the same picture to be shared again.

Since these profiles are only a few months old and have few, if any, friends, an examination of the profiles that make such posts will often show that they are scammers.

In a 2023 editorial, William R. Toler, managing editor of RO, talked about these kinds of scams.

The sheriff’s office disclosed in September that many locals had been tricked into renting a home via Facebook Marketplace.

Please do not fall for this; according to the RCSO letter, scammers are posting pictures of houses for rent or lease, including ones that don’t look like homes in Richmond County or even North Carolina. They give a phone number to call and a local address where the residence is purportedly located.

The letter said that victims were asked to use pre-paid cards to pay a $700 deposit and a $60 processing charge.

No legitimate renting or leasing organization will ask you to obtain a pre-paid card and then call them with the card details. This is blatant evidence that it is a scam.

Fraudsters have reportedly threatened to put their potential victims in jail for skipping jury duty if they don’t pay a fine, according to reports to the sheriff’s office.

But there are other local organizations that have sent out scam advisories besides the sheriff’s office.

At least two bogus websites were trying to sell or resell tickets to the Cole Auditorium’s concerts, the venue announced in late October. Additionally, there were fake Facebook event pages.

For correct ticket information, prospective buyers can check Cole’s official website and Facebook page.

Another scam on social media involves scammers creating fake musician accounts. It is not, however, exclusive to well-known people.

A few months back, someone created a fake account under the name of local musician Jonathan Robinson in an attempt to sell T-shirts by leaving links in comments.

False livestreaming links placed beneath posts from Rockingham Speedway and Rockingham Dragway are examples of additional comment frauds.

Twice since August, Visit Richmond County has issued warnings about scammers trying to exploit vendors at Rockingham’s Christmas on the Square, most recently on November 19.

The statement then tells prospective vendors about the application process. “Please be aware of scammers—we DO NOT accept online payments and will not request payment from you via PayPal or any other online payment system,” it reads.

You can report potential scams to the Attorney General’s Office of North Carolina online or by calling 1-800-5-NO-SCAM.

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