Taken and shaken

 News from up Philadelphia way:

Last week a woman from the town known as King of Prussia was rooked out of $6,000+ in a recurring scam. The woman wanted to share her story to warn others.

Yes, it's a real town.

Last week, she got a call from a number that SEEMED to be from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. As we all know by now, phone scammers are at a level of sophistication that would allow them to SEEM to be calling from Melania Trump's closet, if they had a mind to do so.

But, the woman thought she was doing the right thing, and called the official-seeming number back, only to be told that she had "missed federal jury duty and there was an outstanding warrant" for her arrest.

Crimefighters' note: Your county sheriff is not concerned with federal jury duty.

But these scammers told the woman not to hang up until she paid a fine of $15,000.

She stayed on the line for almost three hours, and was told to withdraw money from her bank and wire it through a machine at a nearby gas station.

Does any of this sound legitimate to you? Of course not, but this lady told the news that the people used authoritative, commanding language, and she felt scared, traumatized, and angry. She could have added "bamboozled," but no. 

They made her feel like this was a big issue and she could have gone to jail, so she started shelling out. 

"I stopped myself 6 times in the whole process thinking this is totally a scam. And every single time I got to that point they became more authoritative," she added,  "Threatening to the point you will be in trouble you will be arrested."

They got her for $6,340 before she figured out she was on the hook, and she called her local police. The people were using the sheriff's name and real badge numbers, so she fell for it, although this information is readily available to all.

Don't know if she will get her money back, or if the people will be caught, but remember, be skeptical about suspicious calls like this, especially from people demanding immediate payment. And for the love of Pete, do not give your banking information to anyone like this.

Hang up, call the police, turn around, don't drown.

Oh wait. That's for flooding.

Just be wise!