The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is warning residents of the Seattle area about a phone scam in which callers claim to be law enforcement officers or King County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
- Victims of the calls have been told that they failed to appear in court to testify as a witness or failed to respond to a subpoena. The scammers claim that a judge has issued a civil fine, a criminal contempt of court citation, and/or an arrest warrant for the call recipient.
- Victims are told that the only way to resolve the matter is to pay a significant amount of money via Zelle (or a similar money transfer product) or officers will find and arrest them.
- The Attorney’s Office provided more details about what to be on the lookout for if you receive one of these calls, and steps to take if you’re contacted by a scammer.
- A report in May from Seattle startup Hiya highlighted the ongoing problem of phone fraud and spam calls. The report found that during the first quarter of this year, nearly 25% of all unknown calls globally were flagged as spam or fraud — that’s 73.6 million per day.
