REALTORS® beware! There is a scam going around targeting female REALTORS® and threatening them with arrest if they don’t comply.
On March 29, a NEFAR member was targeted by a “very believable individual” who was impersonating a police officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Our member said the scammer’s call originated from JSO’s non-emergency number, and she was given a real JSO officer’s name. During the call, the scammer referred to a local judge and said he wanted our member to meet him at the police station on East Bay Street. The scammer claimed our member had been served with a subpoena and because she had failed to appear, she would be arrested, but if she came down to JSO headquarters on Bay Street in Jacksonville and paid a certain sum of money, her problem would go away.
Upon contacting JSO, our member was informed that she was the second female REALTOR® in Jacksonville to contact the sheriff’s department about this scam. In responding to a call from NEFAR about the situation, a JSO representative said, one way REALTORS® can identify a scam such as this is to understand that law enforcement officers never initiate phone calls to ask for money in this way.
If you receive a similar call from a scammer, please contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
