The Shadow
There has been a surge of phone calls to registered sex offenders in an attempt to scam them out of money by telling them if they don’t provide a cash payment or they will send someone to arrest them. These calls are being made to the offender’s places of work, as well as the offender themselves.
Many times, the scammer leaves an officer’s name and phone number for the offender to call. These are scams.
The scammers often spoof numbers, lead the victim to believe the call originates from a police department and will have the person meet at a location close to the PD or they will offer to come by to pick up the payment.
The Virginia State Police manage the Sex Offender Registry, and no police agency takes payments from offenders to stay out of jail. Anyone telling you to provide money to stay out of jail is a scammer.
Police do business face-to-face and if there is an issue, that offender will be taken to a Magistrate, not told to pay.
If you receive a call hang up and contact the agency directly without using the number, they called from. The Virginia State Police is the only agency that deals with the Sex Offender Registry.
