MARYVILLE, TENNESSEE – Blount County Sheriff James Lee Berrong is asking you to be aware of another round of phone scams.

The criminals are posing as employees of the Sheriff’s Office and telling people they will be arrested due to an array of claims if they don’t pay the caller thousands of dollars:

The criminal tells the individual they will be arrested and fined if they don’t pay thousands of dollars by way of credit card, gift cards, bitcoin, and other methods of payment. In one instance today, a victim provided credit card information to the criminal over the phone after the criminal told him his loved one was in jail and needed to post bond.

We’ve shared numerous posts about this and similar phone scams. These criminals will stop at nothing to try to take your money in an attempt to make some easy cash. PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THIS!!!

Sheriff’s deputies and personnel may call individuals about routine business, but you will NEVER be asked to provide payment by way of bank account information, gift cards, Green Dot Visa cards, bitcoin, or any other method of payment over the phone. We will also NOT ask you to meet at a random location to pay a fine! These calls are coming from phone numbers that are generated via the Internet. They also use number spoofing to make it look as if the call is coming from a legitimate organization.

NEVER provide payment information over the phone to individuals or companies that you are not familiar with and that call to solicit and threaten you!

There are ways to combat this nefarious activity, including the following:

We are asking you again to share this information with your friends and family who may not be tuned into social media. We do not want to see anyone victimized by these criminals!