Scams circulating in the Laurel County area

Laurel County, KY - Sheriff John Root is reporting that: 2 variations of phone scams have been reported to the Laurel County Sheriff's Office that are circulating in the Laurel County area.

They are:

The caller is advising that they are representatives of the electric company and that money is owed to them. They are instructing citizens to get a green card at a local store or to give credit card information so the bill can be paid. This is a scam.

The caller is advising families that are looking for a lost dog – that they have a dog for free – however they are then asking for a donation of $500 to pay for a particular type of dog. This appears to be a scam.

In most of these phone scams, the caller requests money be sent by a cashiers check, a green dot card, money gram ,a check or the victims bank routing numbers.

Citizens need to be alerted that in all these instances, all appear to be a scam. Please do not fall prey to this attempt to steal money from unsuspecting people. Generally if citizens have caller I.D. on their phone, and do not recognize the caller’s number, it is recommended not to answer, and screen phone calls. Scammers can even program familiar phone numbers into their calls. Common sense applies here.

As always, we recommend that citizens never give out personal identifying information, and never send money, checks, or other means of cash.

The sheriff's office continues to investigate.