Scammers posing as Cass County Sheriff's Office

The Cass County Sheriff's Office is warning the public of a recurring scam occurring in the area.

Sheriff Jesse Jahner says scammers often pose as law enforcement officers to carry out their scams. He says victims are usually told they owe fines or have a warrant for their arrest, which will be canceled after paying a fee. Jahner says that yesterday a scammer told a victim she was Sheriff Jahner, provided her with fictitious court and docket numbers, then convinced her to send money through a Bitcoin machine. Jahner says law enforcement will never solicit payments in this way.

“We're not going to ask people to deposit money anywhere other than the courthouse. If someone has a warrant and asks how to take care of it, we usually tell them they can go to the courthouse of justice and go down to the court office and make their bail payment if that's what they have and that's really the only thing we ask them to do, but this case would actually be conducted at the courthouse. Cass County Courthouse, where we handle legitimate public, government and court matters.

Jahner says scammers will impersonate law enforcement as an intimidation tactic. He says if you feel like you're being targeted by such a scam, you can hang up and contact law enforcement yourself. He says scammers can spoof legitimate phone numbers and even provide real unit numbers to appear legitimate. This particular scammer even invited the victim to come to the Cass County Sheriff's Office Law Enforcement Center in North Fargo.