June 14, 2019 – The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office has recently been made aware of a phone scam targeting sex offender registrants. Parties unknown have been calling locally-registered sex offenders and have been attempting to extort the registrants by impersonating members of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office and asking the registrants to pay “bail” to stay out of jail, clear up active warrants of arrest, or to keep us from installing monitoring devices on their persons or vehicles. In most instances, the suspects have been asking the victims to pay with “Google Play” cards, or other forms of payment that make the identity of the suspect harder to trace. The suspects are claiming fresh charges (similar to those for which the victims have registered) have been filed with the local district attorney.
If you have questions about a call you have received by someone claiming to be a member of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office we encourage you to call in to our office (530-265-1471) and confirm the identity of the person with whom you have spoken. Do not return a call to the number given by the caller unless the number matches the number in the phone book. It is our understanding the suspects have been calling from a local “530” area code, and when victims return a call, they reach a phone tree, which sounds official in nature.
If you or any Nevada County resident you know has been a target of this scam, please call our Major Crimes Unit at (530)265-1263 or file a report in person at our office.