Woman scammed out of nearly $30K in phone scam where caller impersonated officer
The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office is urging residents to be cautious after learning a woman was scammed out of nearly $30,000.
The sheriff’s office says they learned of the scam on Tuesday morning after it was reported to Munhall police. A woman said she was scammed out of nearly $30,000 by someone claiming to be from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman said the scam started on April 22, when she got a call from someone claiming to be Commander Leo O’Neill, who oversees the courts division. The caller ID made it appear like it was coming from the sheriff’s office. The man told her she had active arrest warrants for failure to appear and contempt of court.
The woman was told to withdraw money from her bank, then go to two Coinstar machines to convert the cash into cryptocurrency using the Coinme app. She converted nearly $28,000 using the machines. She told police the recipes had no information indicating where the crypto was sent.
The sheriff’s office says these types of scam calls are increasing and offered an explanation of what police will never do over the phone:
Our office never discusses warrant information over the phone
Our office will never request payment of any kind over the phone
Our office will never use electronic transfers or payment apps such as Venmo and Zelle to request payment
Our office will never request that payments be made in the form of cryptocurrency
Our office will never direct you to use any type of payment kiosk
“It’s frustrating the message is please, please if you get a call like that recognize red flags tell them you are in the middle of something call either my office or call 911,” Sheriff Kevin Kraus said to Channel 11.
Police say the scammers use the stress that comes with being told you could be arrested to convince victims to do something that is never within legitimate law enforcement procedures.
“We don’t do any transactions over the phone, we don’t arrest people over the phone, we don’t threaten to arrest people over the phone,” Kraus said.
Anyone who gets a similar scam call should end the conversation and call the sheriff’s office to confirm that the call was a scam.
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