Police Processing Scam

If you’re being served with court papers, make sure they’re coming from a reputable source.

Who Is It Targeting: Citizens in local police jurisdictions

What Is It: A phishing scam aimed at stealing your personal information

What Are They After: Residents in Tillamook County, Oregon, have reported receiving phone calls from the County’s “processing service.” Many of them indicated that their caller ID even listed Tillamook County as the call center. Unfortunately, the sheriff’s department has had to issue an alert about this scam, largely because the county doesn’t use a processing service.

This type of service is used by some larger local governments to issue legal documents like warrants and court summons, but the sheriff has said that Tillamook County uses its own deputies to deliver these important documents. Sadly, the phone caller claiming to be from the processing service frightened people with threats of legal proceedings against them in order to steal their identifying information.

How Can You Avoid It:

• You will never be arrested over the phone.
• If anyone calls you—regardless of their caller ID—and says you’re receiving a summons, there’s a warrant for your arrest or any other legal proceeding, rest assured it’s a scam.
• The same is true of email and text messages. Any legitimate legal proceedings will involve mailed letters so that you can amass a paper trail of the event.
• If in doubt, hang up and contact your local government agency to be sure, and report the phone call while you’re at it.

For full details of this scam check out this article from Tillamook Headlight Herald.