The Idaho Central Sex Offender Registry, part of the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification, has been made aware of several attempted scams targeting sexual offenders in several Idaho counties as well as in other states.
One scam involves a caller posing as a law enforcement officer who tells the sexual offender that they have missing or out-of-date registration information. The caller then threatens that, in order to avoid arrest for failure to register, the registrant must bring a gift/money card to a specified location (other than the local law enforcement’s registration office). The caller may provide a callback number with a voice mail message that sounds as if it belongs to the local law enforcement’s registration office.
In another report, the caller says they are with the Sheriff’s Office and they have a warrant for being non-compliant and only way to take care of it without being arrested is to go to the store and get a money card and give them the number over the phone.
If contacted, those on the Sex Offender Registry should not follow these instructions. Report any such contact to your local Sheriff’s office.