News

Sheriff Pat Kelly says a resident reported today receiving a phone call from the Sheriff's phone number.

 

The caller informed the resident he had outstanding tickets he needed to pay.

 

The resident refused and contacted Kelly. 

 

"Basically what it is, you can make a phone call to a residence, put another person's number in and it will show up on caller ID as being that agency. This is not, these calls did not come from my office. What happens is the person told the person, they said who is this and he said to them, "you're just too stupid to understand" and he hung up. Obviously my office and any law enforcement agency in our county would not make those kinds of remarks," said Kelly.

 

Kelly says the caller was using an application called Spoof — which changes the number a person sees on their caller ID.

 

According to the application's website, "Each of the capabilities of SpoofCard is legal in the US. However, certain uses may be illegal depending on which state you are calling from or to."

 

Kelly says there is a concern for law enforcement that the technology could be used to swindle money, disrupt public services or make false death notifications.

 

Anyone who thinks they may have been a victim of a disguised phone call is asked to call the Athens County Sheriff's office.