{"id":1284755,"date":"2023-12-24T00:20:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T06:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1284755"},"modified":"2023-12-27T08:16:40","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T14:16:40","slug":"smith-county-officials-warn-of-bitcoin-phone-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1284755","title":{"rendered":"Smith County officials warn of Bitcoin phone scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"TYLER \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Smith County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office is warning the public of a scam where a caller pretending to be a deputy will ask you to pay a fine through Bitcoin machines at Tyler Vape shops. According to our news partner KETK the caller reportedly claims to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Deputy Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. He allegedly tells people that they have a warrant and have to immediately pay a fine by depositing money into Bitcoin machines that can be found at local vape shops. Officials said they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also had reports that a caller will identify himself as Captain Craig Halbrooks, the SCSO patrol commander. The caller will reportedly ask for $10,000 to $20,000 dollars at a time and has allegedly obtained around $50,000 doing this alleged scam.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fall victim to these telephone scams! At NO time will the Smith County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office, or any law enforcement agency, call you on the telephone asking for money. Law enforcement agencies do not handle payments for fines or warrants. If you feel that you may actually have a warrant out for your arrest, no law enforcement agency will call you requesting money! If you receive a call like this, simply hang up, call the agency in question, and tell the dispatcher what is happening. They will have a law enforcement officer call you to verify the scam. Please don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow these thieves to ruin your holiday season. Have a Merry Christmas!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n Larry Christian, Public information officer for Smith County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TYLER \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Smith County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office is warning the public of a scam where a caller pretending to be a deputy will ask you to pay a fine through Bitcoin machines at Tyler Vape shops. According to our news partner KETK the caller reportedly claims to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Deputy Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. He allegedly tells people that … Continue reading Smith County officials warn of Bitcoin phone scam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1284757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/12\/scam-alert-200x113.webp","fifu_image_alt":"Smith County officials warn of Bitcoin phone scam","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1284755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 16:24:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/12\/scam-alert-200x113.webp","fifu_image_alt":"Smith County officials warn of Bitcoin phone scam","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1284755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284758,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284755\/revisions\/1284758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1284757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1284755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1284755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1284755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}