On Saturday, April 20, 2019, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) was made aware of the telephone call made to County Counsel Mary C. Wickham on her personal cell phone.

Detectives from the LASD Major Crimes Bureau were assigned to this matter and stand ready to launch a full assessment of this potential threat. For several weeks, various stations throughout the County have received reports by residents that they had received similar telephone calls by persons purporting to be members of the Sheriff’s Department and claiming that the person had not appeared for either jury duty or Grand Jury duty.

With some of these calls, the suspects have been able to mask their telephone numbers to appear as if they are calling from within the Sheriff’s Department, in an attempt to appear to be legitimate. At this time, multiple criminal reports have been taken at various stations and are in the early investigative stages.

In an effort to prevent members from our community from falling victim to these fraudulent actors, press releases were sent out to local news media, as well as posted on our numerous social media platforms. On the surface, the incident referred to by Ms. Wickham follows a similar pattern of calls received by others in the area.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is committed to investigating all incidents of fraud, while we continue to remind our community that law enforcement does not call to intimidate or coerce money for unpaid citations, outstanding warrants, or the failure to attend jury duty. We have and will continue to post public safety announcements alerting our residents to avoid being a victim. Bad actors have been targeting victims across the nation with a large number of telephone scams reporting to be members of law enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the court system, or other government agencies. If you receive such a phone call, do not give out any personal, credit card, or banking information – nor should you transfer any funds electronically or through a gift card. If you do become a victim of this scam, contact your local law enforcement agency immediately.