Pinellas County, Fla. (970 WFLA) - The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office warns people of two common phone scams that have cropped up again.
In one, con artists call potential victims claiming to be Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputies. They tell the target that they have missed jury duty, and must turn themselves in to the jail unless they pay a fine, according to a news release from the PCSO.
The scammer instructs the victim to buy a pre-paid debit, credit or gift card from the nearest convenience store, and tell them the numbers on the back of the card. The caller claims that the warrant will be purged from the system once the victim pays.
In the other scam, the scammer claims to call from Duke Energy, saying that the target has an overdue bill that they must pay immediately with a pre-paid debit, credit or gift card, or their electricity will get cut off.
The Sheriff's Office and Duke Energy both say that they never call people demanding payments. The PCSO reports multiple incidents since February 26 of people trying to pull these scams on people.