Fraudsters across the Verde Valley have been calling potential victims and pretending to be police officers, often using the names of real officers and spoofing the phone numbers of police departments.
“You can’t even trust your caller identification anymore,” Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Fraud Investigations official Ron Norfleet said. “These [scammers] are good and they’re getting better. Now you got artificial intelligence involved and that’s making it tougher on us. They can clone [a] voice and make it sound like it’s somebody else.”
Norfleet said that voice cloning has been used in “grandparent scams” in which a person receives a call from a relative claiming to be in danger or having been kidnapped and requiring an instant transfer of money. YCSO reported that Yavapai County resident lost $12,000 to a grandparent scam near the beginning of March. Norfleet said those receiving such calls should hang up and call the relative to verify their safety.
YCSO said it had documented around a dozen total calls that involved scammers using the actual names of YCSO staff — Chief Jeff Newnum and Sgt. Scott Joy — to extort a payment.
“In the beginning of the year Sedona Police Department received a few calls reporting an officer representing himself as ‘Officer Jesse Santos’ asking for donations,” SPD Deputy Chief of Police Ryan Kwitkin said. “We informed them that although Officer Jesse Santos works for Sedona PD, he was not fundraising or calling anyone asking for funds. The caller was referred to ic3.gov to report it. There was no monetary loss.”
Two other incidents occurred at two separate Uptown businesses on the afternoon of Feb. 18, when the businesses were called by an unknown subject claiming to be with SPD. The employee at the first business was told to take all the money at the location and to purchase gift cards in Cottonwood, while the employee at the second business was told by the unknown subject that the business was receiving counterfeit currency and the store needed to be closed.
“They were also using a computer program that would show on the victim’s phone as a call from the Sedona Police Department when in actuality, [SPD] calls anyone, it usually displays blocked or unavailable number,” Kwitkin said. “SPD will often leave a message with a request to call back and our name, phone number and the reason for the call. SPD dispatch can be reached at (928) 282-3100 ext. 0 for non-emergency calls and to verify any messages that are left for you are from legitimate SPD officers and or staff.”
Brian Watson, a community outreach specialist with the Phoenix nonprofit Resources/Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly said that many scams try to create a sense of urgency.
“It’s a scam that’s been going on for a long time, and people fall for it because of the respect and fear for law enforcement,” Watson said. “It’s usually something like you didn’t show up for jury duty, or you have an unpaid ticket to create that urgency that you have to do it right now.”
Residents who receive calls demanding payment to prevent an arrest are advised to refrain from panicking or sharing personal information and to hang up the call immediately. Residents are also encouraged to contact the YCSO Fraud Department at (928) 771-3299.
