Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department: Warning Of Fraud Incidents

The word FRAUD, It's real and it's out there

That's one of the things that can silently creep up on you, it can come out of nowhere and bite you in the neck, and your bank account. We see and hear of different kinds of fraud almost every day. It can attack the young and old.

Burleigh County Sheriff's Department just this morning put out a warning

There has been a rise in attempted fraud cases. The perpetrators are reaching out via their telephone and posing as deputies. According to the Burleigh County Sheriff's Department "These individuals claim the recipient of the phone calls has warrants for minor charges such as parking tickets or failures to pay fines". Of course, their next step of action is to ask the individual how they intend on paying their penalty fees, suggesting that they use their credit card or another convenient way, gift cards sent electronically.

Con artists will take advantage of every social media tool they can get their grubby hands on.

Burleigh County Sheriff's Department goes on to say that "The callers are both males and females with various accents. They use the real names of Deputies currently employed within the Sheriff’s Department"  This is no joke, in fact, they mentioned that over the last 5 years the department went on to say they have received hundreds of reports of fraud involving gift cards used as payments.

The 4 NEVERS

Lastly, Burleigh County Sheriff's Department put out a list of 4 wise NEVERS.

1) NEVER give out your social security number (Too easy to track information on you)

2) NEVER give out any financial information (Bank account number etc)

3) NEVER send out gift cards as a way of payment (That's a red flag for sure)

4) NEVER let anyone know your computer password ( Once the thieves are in your computer it's only a matter of time before they clean you out)

Make sure you are always on guard for a con artist, for any new tricks that someone may use to rip you off. Stay alert and use common sense.