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For Immediate Release |
Contact: |
August 17, 2021 |
Anne Murphy Northern District of Ohio (216) 276-7505; U.S. Marshals Office of Public Affairs (703) 740-1699 |
U.S. Marshals ServiceSees Another Spike in Scam Phone Calls |
Cleveland, OH – The U.S. Marshals are alerting the public of several imposter scams involving individuals claiming to be U.S. Marshals, court officers, and county Sheriff’s Deputies. Recently, The United States Attorney’s Office in
the Northern District of Ohio and the United States Postal Inspectors
have been investigating a case where scammers claimed to be United
States Marshal Pete Elliott. Scammers have been calling victims to
explain that they missed court dates after being served with subpoenas,
no such subpoenas were ever served, and the victims were not named in
any court case. In this case, the scammers used a publicly available PDF
form to list a fictional court matter. Scammers use many tactics to sound credible. They sometimes provide information like badge numbers, names of actual law enforcement officials and federal judges, and courthouse addresses. They may also spoof their phone numbers to appear on caller ID as if they are calling from the court or a government agency. If a citizen receives a potential scam phone call, the US Marshals are urging the public to call the clerk of the court’s office of the U.S. District Court in your area and verify the court order. If an order does not exist, then it is likely the individual is being scammed. “The U.S. Marshals would never ask for a
credit/debit or gift card number, banking routing numbers, or ask for
funds to be wired for any purpose,” said US Marshal Pete Elliott. “If
the caller is urging you to provide this type of information or any
other personal or financial information, hang up and report the call to
the Marshals and the FTC. You can even report to both agencies
anonymously.”
Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov. #### |