With the holiday season approaching, the Sheriff's Office would like to remind everyone to be vigilant against online, phone, and mail scams soliciting money. Several reports are taken every year with victims providing money to scammers via gift cards, money orders, mobile payment apps, or simply providing one's bank account information, all being done in a manner that pushes you to make a payment. Various approaches to get you to send money range from you having a warrant, unpaid taxes, people claiming they are related to you and stuck in a foreign country, to name a few. Typically, official government agencies or real businesses do not have you submit payment via these pushy methods.

Should you receive such solicitation, please do not immediately act upon what is being told you; either request the caller provide you further detailed information as to what they are requesting money from you to determine whether what is being asked of you is legitimate, or simply hang up.

One common scam we see is people receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be a member of the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office. Typically the caller has told people they have missed court/jury duty/etc. and that they would be arrested unless they sent a payment via credit card/Walmart gift card/etc. The Sheriff's Office does not accept payment for anything over the phone, and we do not accept payments by credit card or gift card. It is also not a normal practice for the Sheriff's Office to call anyone to inform them they've missed court or jury duty. If you receive a call like this, please hang up immediately and call the Sheriff's Office to file a report, as this is most likely a scam. Our phone number is (501)362-8143. Never send payments over the phone unless you know who you are paying, and if you have any questions or concerns that it might be a scam, reach out to your local law enforcement agency for help.

-Sheriff Chris Brown