A New Scam In Amarillo? They’re Coming To Your Actual Home Now.

Scammer season is in full swing. Sure, we deal with these calls and emails almost every single day. However, there's something about the holiday season that sends these people out in full force.

There's a scam currently going on that is invading the panhandle, and it's not always limited to just a phone call that you can ignore.

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Most of the time, these scammers disguise themselves as debt collectors claiming you have an account with them. They threaten legal action constantly, which by the way is against the law. These scams are typically easy to figure out.

If it's a legitimate debt collector, they have to identify what company they're with first off. They are not allowed to threaten legal action or a warrant being served on you. If you hear something like that, it's more than likely a scam.

The latest scam though is someone disguising themselves as law enforcement. They spoof their number so it shows up on your caller ID as local law enforcement, which then scares you enough into answering the call.

They explain that you either have unpaid fines or a warrant out for your arrest.

Now I'm no genius, but I'd think you would know if you had unpaid fines, and you should definitely know if you've done something that would trigger a warrant being out for your arrest.

Amarillo PD has had about enough of these scams, and they're here to tell you a couple of things. One, law enforcement will never, I repeat, NEVER call you asking you to handle a fine or warrant being paid over the phone.

A warrant they're just going to show up and serve. You can't buy your way out of a warrant, unless it's something money related and it gets paid, such as child support. However, they aren't calling you for a phone payment on that.

Secondly, even if they were to call you asking for payment, they would never ask that it be paid via gift card or any type of bit coin/cryptocurrency. First off, what is law enforcement going to do with a Visa gift card?

Also, some of these scammers have tried to get real slick and start knocking on your door trying to pressure you into it. Amarillo PD says if this occurs, take a few seconds to gather yourself and think about the situation. If it doesn't seem real, don't answer the door.

If you receive one of these calls or someone shows up at your door, hang up immediately, don't answer the door, and contact local law enforcement to report it.