Local woman scammed out of $18K by people pretending to be Allegheny County Sheriff’s Deputies

ALLEGHENY COUNTY — Another scam is hitting our area and this time, the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office said the victim was scammed out of $18,000.

The sheriff’s office launched an investigation after receiving a call from a 33-year-old woman Monday night claiming some suspicious activity involving their office.

It turns out that it was a scam and by the time the damage was done, she was out 18 grand.

The woman told the sheriff’s office that she had received three phone calls from different people posing as deputies.

“They were posing to be supervisors in our office, and they told her she failed to respond to a subpoena. Therefore, arrest warrants were issued, and she could take care of the arrest warrants by payment over the phone,” said Sheriff Kevin Kraus.

The scammers told the victim to purchase $8,000 worth of gift cards which she did at a local Giant Eagle and two Rite Aids and then she was told to pay the rest which was $10,000 through Apple Pay.

Sheriff Kraus says his office does nothing over the phone – it’s always in person.

“Our office does nothing over the phone, especially anything that involved financial payments,” said Sheriff Kraus. “We would do everything in person if there were warrants. We can confirm warrants, but we wouldn’t even discuss that over the phone so anything over the phone with this office should be suspicious to everyone.”

The sheriff also said they never ask for gift cards as payment. The county sheriff shared a warning for the public.

“We have heard of cases like this involving our office. This isn’t the first time, but we just want to send a strong message, anytime something seems suspicious, please call us,” said Sheriff Kraus.

The victim said two of the scammers had southern accents. Right now, the sheriff’s office is investigating.

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