Beware new scam where a man claiming to be law enforcement calls, claiming there has been a bench warrant issued for a material witness case in your name. 

The victim in this latest scam attempt will remain anonymous to protect her identity. However, she told our reporters that the phone number that called her was in fact the Kern County Sheriff's dispatch line. The scammer had called her using a technique known as "spoofing" where they can make their number appear to be any number they wish. Services like SpoofCard make it easy for would-be scammers to pretend to be anyone. 

But that wasn't their only tactic to scam this victim. They used the name of Lt. David Reynolds. And, in fact, this is a real sheriff with the department. The victim, a savvy person who had questions initially did what any tech savvy person would do and searched for this person online as she was on the call. To her surprise, he was a real sheriff according to two LinkedIn profiles. 

He was a smooth talker, the victim suddenly was at ease. He had no accent and seemed concerned, trying to help her clear this case up. He knew her former home address and claimed that she had been served a subpoena that she had actually signed for at her former home in January 2021. She was surprised considering she had not lived in the state for more than six months. 

When she asked what this was about, the "sheriff" claimed she was a material witness in a case. But he wouldn't elaborate due to privacy laws. However, he said he would contact her the next day and would send out a packet of information to her current address. He didn't ask for any personal details at this point. He offered her his "direct line" as (661) 455-7876, to get in touch with him so he wouldn't have to go through dispatch and he said he would be in touch.

The victim felt at ease that this was a legit situation after speaking with him. Everything seemed reasonable. But, upon further consideration after this call, she thought it prudent to confirm this by calling the confirmed Sheriff's dispatch line and telling the deputy on the phone what had happened. They confirmed it: this was a scam. The sheriff being impersonated was indeed real, but the title was incorrect, what he was doing was not anything they would do, and the "direct line" was not anything affiliated with their office. 

The following day, a slew of "law enforcement officers" began to call her. This fake David Reynolds, another fake deptuty from her current county, and more. Now, the new deputy from her local area also had a fake LinkedIn account. She continued playing along, knowing the game they were aiming to play. 

When the fake David Reynolds called again, telling her he was able to clear it up but she would have to go perform a "signature verification" and pay a fee, using a prepaid payment option she would have to pick up at a retail location, she let it be known that she called the Sheriff's department and she knew this was all fraudulent and that he was not David Reynolds. His response was that he would just "put back the warrant" and she would have to be extradited. The call then terminated.

But the group of scammers weren't finished with her yet. She then began to receive countless calls and texts from their "direct line" ranging from laughable to lewd. They asked for nude photos. They asked for sexual favors. They asked for money. She also began getting suspicious friend requests on social media accounts. The harassment continues from the scammers, making demands that she join a Zoom call or send a video -- noncompliance would result in "charges" being reinstated. 

Beware this new scam trend. These are savvy criminals using technology to disceive would-be victims. Both law enforcment agencies are investigating this case and will be pursuing charges but declined to comment further at this time. 

During the course of our investigation, we found that the perpetrator impersonating David Reynolds was actually located in Enterprise, Alabama through his Verizon device's IP address (174.223.7.163) which returned a geographic location of 31.315170, -85.855220.