The Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Office is warning area residents of a scam operation trying to get your money and using the threat of arrest for leverage.
Such calls have also been reported in surrounding counties and, just as in those cases, the calls seem at first to be legitimate. The local calls claim to be from a Lieutenant Perronne. There’s a real Lt. Perronne, but he’s not calling. Reports indicate that the fake officer tells those getting the calls that they have an outstanding citation and are in contempt of court, then tells the intended victim that they’ll be arrested if they don’t give a sum of money in the form of gift cards to put the warrant on hold.
To make the call seem even more legitimate the scammers have used technology that can display the actual Sheriff’s Office phone number as the caller. In fact, the Sheriff says nobody from theirs, or any other police agency, will ever call you requesting a payment, and the number displayed may not be the real number of the caller.
If you get such a call, the Sheriff advises you to write down the number, politely reply that you’ll call the Sheriff’s Office to confirm the details, then call them with the information.
The Sheriff’s non-emergency phone number is (920) 459-3111
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