Scammers Mimic Local Numbers in Fraud Scheme

ROANOKE, VA – For years, Brandon Young has been the go-to guy for helping people identify scams, but this week, he discovered that scammers are now using his name to deceive others.

“We had four individuals yesterday, and we actually had a couple swing by this morning wanting to see the real Brandon Young,” Young said.

Young is a Colonel and Chief Deputy with the Roanoke City Sheriff’s Office, but the scam caller identifies themself as ‘Sergeant’ Brandon Young

“They use our websites or our public information and find an individual with the sheriff’s office to use their name on these phone calls. Typically they get details wrong,” Young said.

The calls go something like this: “You have warrants or you have failure to appear for jury duty, something along those lines, and it usually follows up with, ‘if you pay this fine,’ you can get yourself out of trouble,’” Young said.

But Young says the sheriff’s office will never call and ask for money.

“You can’t buy yourself out of trouble before you even see a courtroom,” he said.

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You may think you can spot a scam, but scammers are getting trickier, even using local area codes to make calls.

“They’re 540 numbers,” 10 News Anchor Abbie Coleman said.

“There’s a lot of spoofing involved too. We’ve seen other reports come in of phone numbers with the 540, and then 853 or 835 to emulate what the true city of Roanoke phone numbers are,” Young said.

This is on top of nationwide text scams claiming the recipient owes money for tolls.

“Country codes outside of the United States, they’re coming from email addresses that aren’t domains used in the U.S.,” Young said.

And if you send money to a scammer? You’re most likely never getting it back.

That’s why Young says to keep a close eye out for those discrepancies, never click on unknown links, and don’t give out personal information.

“There’s nothing wrong with questioning everything,” he said.

You can find tips from the Roanoke City Sheriff’s Office for spotting scams here.