MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — The McLennan County Sheriff's Office recently issued two scam alerts warning residents about fraudulent calls and a fake social media profile impersonating Sheriff Parnell McNamara.
In one scam, callers claimed to be from the McLennan County Sheriff's Office using a phone number not associated with the department. These scammers were requesting payments for fines and warrants over the phone.
"We started getting calls from people that were questioning whether or not this was righteous or not," Sheriff McNamara said.
The second scam involved someone creating a fake Facebook profile impersonating Sheriff McNamara, using photos from his account.
"When I saw that, I couldn't believe it, you know, they took pictures of me, pictures of me on my horse that I have on my personal Facebook and use that to create this fake face uh Facebook account," McNamara said.
The sheriff believes social media has contributed to the rise in scams targeting our neighbors.
"It's like going fishing and you've got a pond with thousands of fish in there. And they strike and so um it's made it so much easier uh, you know for the scammers before social media none of this existed," McNamara said.
The Sheriff's Office emphasized they will never ask for payment over the phone and encourages residents who have been targeted by scams to contact local law enforcement immediately.
"We don't want our good citizens to be scammed. And if you're getting scammed or you have been scammed, please contact us immediately and we will do whatever we can to catch these people. And I can't promise we'll catch him, but I can promise we will try," McNamara said.
The Sheriff's Office is currently working to have the fake Facebook profile removed.
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