Several people in Norfolk have reported that they've received phone calls - purportedly from a clerk with Norfolk Circuit Court - claiming that the recipient of the call failed to complete some sort of legal obligation and has to pay a fee to avoid being arrested.
The person attempting to perpetrate this scam identifies himself as "Jack Tiernan," who actually is a law clerk with the court. However, the number that shows up in caller-ID is not his.
One person who the scammer tried to trick was able to record a portion of the call he and his wife received while it was in progress. You can listen to it here:
As you can clearly hear, there were many inconsistencies in how the scammer presented information.
A representative of Norfolk Circuit Court told us they're receiving two or three reports a day from people who have received a call from this scammer attempting to frighten them into giving up their money in order to stay out of trouble. The representative said that many of the people reporting this live in the Larchmont area of the city. They said this may be because Larchmont has many older and more affluent residents.
In this case, it has not yet gotten to the point of the caller specifying how much money the intended victim should pay, or how it should be delivered. "I suspect if it ever came down to payment it would be in the usual means of gift or money pak cards which itself sets off alarms, or should," said Capt. Mike Imprevento, the OIC of NSO's Consumer Protection Unit.
When the intended victim called the number back that was displayed on caller-ID, he said a recording in the same voice could be heard stating that this was the office of Jack Tiernan, and to leave a message (which he wisely did not do).
However, a member of the Norfolk Police Department's Economic Crimes Unit told us: "Often these people have a way to mask/display a different outgoing number on caller-ID. We have seen cases where the number calling the people is literally the same number as Navy Federal, as in they hang up with the scammer, call the same number back, and it connects to legit NFCU. Same with our police operations center, where the outgoing scam call was made and displayed the callback number of the POC (Police Operations Center), 664-7000.
"These same scams have been prevalent with both the NSO, mentioning the Sheriff, the Chief of Police, and other agencies all over the country. It wouldn’t surprise any of us if they were centered outside of the United States."
DON'T BE FOOLED BY THESE SCAMMERS! IF YOU RECEIVE A CALL LIKE THIS, REPORT IT TO AUTHORITIES!
