Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Issues June 2025 Scams Update

(Walhalla, SC)-------------------------------------In our continuing efforts to educate and inform our citizens, and to prevent them from becoming victims of scams, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is releasing today our June 2025 Scams Update.

A Deputy assigned to the Warrants Unit spoke with a person at the Law Enforcement Center who was on the phone with someone claiming to be with the Warrants and Citations Unit of the Sheriff’s Office.  The caller identified themselves as “Captain Stevens.”

The person the Deputy spoke with at the LEC said that they had received a text from a “Lieutenant Dean McFarland” from the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office who stated that “it is very urgent you give me a call back at your earliest convenience...” and provided a phone number.

While on the phone, “Captain Stevens” stated that the person had an outstanding warrant and that by making a payment, the warrant would be recalled.  The person went to the bank, at the instruction of “Captain Stevens,” and was told to go some local businesses and purchase gift cards.  The person drove instead to the Law Enforcement Center. 

While at the LEC, the person came in contact with the Deputy assigned to the Warrants Unit.  The Deputy spoke with “Captain Stevens” and began a conversation with him.  After posing some challenging questions, the caller hung up.  The Deputy said that “Captain Stevens” was very persistent.

“As we have stated in previous scam updates, scammers will create a sense of urgency in order to get a potential victim to act in a way that they might not otherwise due to the stressful situation,” said Corporal Jimmy Watt, Public Information Officer with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.  “As we have also stated in previous scam updates related to law enforcement scams, law enforcement will not ask for, nor accept any money, to have a lawfully obtained warrant recalled.  If someone also asks you to pay anything with a gift card, consider it to be a scam.”

Deputies were recently notified by employees of two separate businesses in the County that they had received phone calls from an unidentified person who claimed to be in touch with the employee’s managers in regards to cash payments at the respective businesses.  

In one case, the caller identified themselves as a law enforcement officer who said that they had received permission from the store manager to speak with her.  In the second incident, the caller stated that they were with the Department of Revenue.

The caller asked the employees at both businesses to remove all the money from the register, count out the specific denominations and place the money in an envelope.  One of the employees at one of the businesses told Deputies that the caller said that the business was no longer accepting debit/credit card payments but only cash payments.  The same employee stated that the caller told her to write down a case number, the date, her name and how many people were in the store. 

An employee of other business realized they were being scammed before any further instructions could be relayed to them due to speaking their manager, who told them that they had not spoken to anyone about any money. 

The employee of the other business was instructed to download a QR code and take the money to a separate business, where an electronic deposit would be made once the QR code was scanned.  The employee provided the caller her cell phone which allowed the caller to send her a text message with the QR code. 

Fortunately, no money was lost from this particular business due to the employee realizing that it was a scam.  The employees of both businesses did provide information to the caller about the amounts of money they had pulled from the register.  Both businesses were placed on extra patrol by the Sheriff’s Office.

“Due to a concern about a possible armed robbery, the Sheriff’s Office placed both of these businesses on extra patrol due to the fact that the amount of money that both businesses had was relayed to the caller,” according to Corporal Watt.  “According to an Investigator with the Fraud Unit of the Sheriff’s Office, make sure to contact a member of management directly if your business receives a call such as this regardless of what you are told.  Also, do not provide information to anyone who calls in regarding how much money may be on hand at your business or even your personal phone number.  Finally, the Investigator recommends not putting employee names on any website or social media related to the business as the caller in this case was able to identify the employees by name.”