According to Sheriff Robert Maciol, a new scam has started…

According to Sheriff Robert Maciol, a new scam has started in the County.

The scam involves a person calling someone on the phone claiming to be from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and that they missed a Court date or ignored a jury summons and that there are pending fines against them. They then advise the person to obtain a certain amount of money and go to the Sheriff’s Office and use the kiosk there to put the money in and they provide an account number for it to be sent. We want the public to know that no one from the Sheriff’s Office will ever call you to tell you of any fines against you or any procedure to pay them. Fines are normally assessed through the Court system and will be handled by the Court system in their respective jurisdictions. Our Civil Division does collect monies for civil judgments and income executions and accepts payments, however that is only through a Court Order and again, it is assessed and ordered through the Court and not the Sheriff’s Office. If you receive any calls such as this, please report it to law enforcement. We urge everyone again, please be careful with giving out personal information as these people may sound authentic and know certain details about you to make you think they are legitimate, and if you feel it may be a scam or are not comfortable giving personal information over the phone, ask the caller for a name, a phone number, the address they are calling from, and tell them you want to check with someone before going any further and that you will call them back. These callers will often use threats of incarceration if you do not respond, they also try to tell you that a family member is in jail and needs bail money. Again, this is not the way Police Agencies operate.