JONESBORO — Phone scammers are calling people in Jonesboro threatening to send them to jail after telling them they missed a court date. They then demand the victim send money to avoid jail.
“If there’s ever an urgency to send money, then it’s a scam,” Police Chief Rick Elliott said Tuesday.
He said the courts or police will never call and say send money.
Elliott said he answered several calls on Monday from nurses or nurse practitioners who were called. No one has reported that they sent money to the scammers, he said.
The department has received more than a dozen phone calls from people who received such calls, Elliott said.
One nurse who was called lives in Fayetteville and worked in Jonesboro last summer.
“We’re not sure how they got this information,” Elliott said about the local phone numbers.
He said variations of the scam have shown up from time to time.
“The theme changes every so often,” Elliott said. “If you’re called, hang up and block the number.”
According to the Arkansas Attorney General’s website about scams:
Wiring money is like giving cash away. If you wire money, there is no protection for you if you later learn that the recipient is not who they claimed to be.
Never give out personal or banking information in response to a phone, email, or mail inquiry. Contact the entity requesting the…
