Today, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office has received several calls today from people saying they were Captain Snippen or “Snipper”, or Officer Ingram. The suspects were demanding money to clear up warrants, missed jury duty or other court and Sheriff’s Office business. They told victims that the money needed to be loaded on some sort of prepaid card and the number was to be sent to them. So far no victims are known to be out any money. One victim did comply with their demands, but were able to quickly get the prepaid cards cancelled.
These calls are NOT coming from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office or any valid agency. These are all scams trying to get money from people. The Sheriff’s Office will NEVER call demanding money for any reason.
Sheriff Yon and his deputies are committed to keeping Linn County citizens safe and would like to remind the community of some basic tips to not become a victim of these scams that were put out a few weeks ago.
- IRS, nor any law enforcement agency including the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, will ever call demanding money in lieu of being arrested.
- Never give personal information including date-of-birth, account information to someone you do not know or are not expecting a call from.
- Do not wire money, send pay cards of any type to anyone you do not know. No legitimate agency or business will have you make a payment this way.
- If you are in doubt at all whether this is a scam or not, find contact information for the company or agency calling you, not the one provided by the person demanding money or payment. One way to do this is to ask for the caller’s agency or company name, find a number for customer service independently, and call to make sure the request was legitimate.
Please do not send any money or give anyone any personal information, account information or credit card numbers at any time without thoroughly verifying who the caller is.