La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and its constituents are once again the target of a scamming ploy to get people to give up their “hard earned money,” officials say.

Deputy Adrian O’Haver said Saturday that the Sheriff’s Office has gotten reports of at least four calls made to La Plata County residents from the “warrants and citations devision” requesting money. No such division exists at the Sheriff’s Office, O’Haver said.

“If anyone requests them (residents) to buy a Green Dot card or Western Union transfer, they should not follow though with anyone’s request,” O’Haver said.

Scammers are calling county residents claiming the potential victim had missed a federal grand jury summons, O’Haver said. Callers will often have personal information about the potential victim, he said, including names and addresses.

He said the caller will then say something to the effect of if a fine isn’t paid, the potential victim could be arrested.

The caller will then start asking for money, somewhere in the $1,000 dollar range and work down from there, O’Haver said. The scammers try to keep the potential victim on the phone and from talking with anyone else, he said.

These people typically ask potential victims to purchase iTunes gift cards, Google Play cards or Green Dot cards of $500 or less; stores that sell gift cards will start asking questions if people buy gift cards for any more than that, O’Haver said. They then ask for the authorization code, which gives them access to the money on the gift cards.

The call often comes from a local area code, but the first three digits after 970 are not typical for the area, O’Haver said. That’s because callers are using Internet phones to mask their true identity, he said.

The Sheriff’s Office would never call and ask for money, O’Haver said, let alone ask for gift cards. If it did have a warrant for someone’s arrest, sheriff’s deputies would contact an individual in person to take them into custody.

If anybody falls victim to one of these scams, O’Haver said she or he should call the La Plata County dispatch lineto report the incident. But these cases are tough to solve, he said – the only leads police often have in these cases are a phone number that leads nowhere.

“It is very difficult crime to try to basically track down the individuals and come to a resolution where they (victims) can potentially get restitution through the court process,” O’Haver said.

bhauff@durangoherald.com