The Canadian County Sheriff's Office has received a noticeable spike in calls from our citizens reporting a telephone scamming scheme that resurfaces periodically.   

Generally, the caller tells the person who answered the phone that 

  • They missed some government function, oftentimes jury duty, or didn't pay a citation.
  • They claim an arrest warrant has been issued for their failure to show.
  • The caller tells the person they need to get some cash, which they usually put onto a card commonly purchased at a drug store, Dollar General, Walmart, or similar chain store.
  • The person who answered the phone should give them the card account number to pay the associated fees or fines or report to the Sheriff's Office or some other government institution to deliver the cash card they had obtained at the caller's request.
  • Then, at some point during the scheme, the caller informs the person they called they can just provide the card's account number on the cash card, and it will be taken care of.
  • Once the caller has the cash card number, they immediately connect to the card company online and withdraw the money.
  • Once they have the money, they disconnect the call. 

These schemes generally have the same elements, just varied details, all designed to steal your money.  

A common theme in all of these schemes is that they don't want you to disconnect the call from them, and they threaten you with adverse government action, such as their arrest.  

We recommend that if you receive a suspicious or similar call as described above, ask the caller for a callback number and their name so you can call the Sheirff's Office to validate their claim. If they don't want to leave a number, disconnect from the call. If they do leave a number and name, call our office at 405-262-3434 so we can help you determine the caller's authenticity.Â