The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a phone scam reported to its office in the last 24 hours.
The department says it’s received multiple calls from people who were contacted by someone claiming to be a Lieutenant Ian Dodd or a Sergeant Dave Albers with the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department. The caller would tell the intended scam victim they’ve missed jury duty or that a warrant has been issued for their arrest. They tell the would-be victim they need to provide payment to resolve the issue.
In all cases, the suspect used a phone number with a 269 area code to make the call appear legitimate.
However, the sheriff’s department says at no point will it contact residents of Berrien County via telephone demanding money or threatening to arrest individuals who do not provide payment. Furthermore, the department says it would not request or accept payments that originate through money transfer services like Walmart, Walgreens, Meijer, or Western Union.
Anyone who gets such a call should just hang up and report it to the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department.
