Minnesota Sheriff’s Office Warns Of Circulating Fake Victim Scam

One Minnesota sheriff's office is warning residents of the state about a scam that is circulating.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, there have been "several incidents in the state of scams, involving in-person scams with victims."

The scam works as follows: people are contacted by phone and told by a scammer that one of their family members are in trouble and / or were involved in accident. In this instance, scammers will pose as a family member or as "legal counsel" for the family member supposedly involved in the accident.

From there, scammers tell the person on the other end of the line that they need cash to pay for the services and that they can come collect it in person. This is the scariest part of the scam!

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, in one instance, scammers targeted an elderly woman, telling her that her son was involved in an accident. Another facet of this scam is that scammers do their research and are able to effectively pose as a family member. In this case, the scammer was able to answer detailed questions about her son.

As always, if something seems off, do not give our your personal information, especially your address! Never give anyone your banking information and always take a minute to do some research so you can save yourself some time in the long run.

If you receive a call like this, you are asked to reach out to the office at 218-281-0431.

There have been no shortage of scams lately, with the most recent scam involving a fake subscription to Netflix.