How many times have you received calls from numbers you do not recognize? How many have asked you for money? In both Smith and Gregg counties, these scams are becoming more frequent.
Officials from both counties say the scammers are pretending to be law enforcement in their departments. In the voicemail of the Gregg County scammer, it says:
"You've reached the Gregg County Sheriff's Department, the civil processing division, all deputies are currently unable to take your call at this time. If you leave your name, number and a brief message the next available deputy will return your call as soon as possible."
At this time no one out there has been scammed in Gregg County. However, this past Friday in smith county, a person was tricked into giving up six-hundred dollars worth of gift cards.
"This individual instructed the victim, that he had a warrant for his arrest, I believe it was for credit card abuse. The victim was instructed to go to the local store and purchase a gift card," said Larry Christian, the Public Information Officer for Smith County.
Scams like this are more frequent than ever, police say it is important to know they will never ask you for money over the phone.
"Whenever we have business with you we are going to deal with you in a face to face manner," Gregg County Public Information Officer Joshua Tubb said. "We won't even share warrant information over the phone, we want the person in front of us."
The scam in Smith County seemed real because the person was imposing to be a detective and using the detective's voice.
"We were able to call that number that the victim provided us and we got a voicemail, it was actually the detective's voicemail that had been pirated," Smith County Public Information Officer Larry Christian said.
At this time there are no strong leads into locating the scammer because they change numbers so frequently.
"Each scam is a little bit different, most of the time you're looking at 24 to 48 hours," Tubb said.
If you are in a situation of a potential scam, let the scammer know you will be calling law enforcement.
"Tell them I'm going to hang up and I'm going to call the Sherriff's department or police department," Officer Christian said. "Whatever jurisdiction they claim to be from, just tell them you're going to call down there to their main number and verify this information."
Remember, if you receive a call from someone asking for money, do not give out any information. Hang up and contact your local law enforcement.