Fraudsters continue to impersonate law enforcement agencies across Sedona and the Verde Valley in an effort to extort money from residents by fabricating urgent issues.
Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office volunteer fraud investigator Ron Norfleet said that although he hasn’t kept a running tally since noticing a surge about a year and a half ago, his office has averaged about one report per day over the past two weeks involving scammers posing as law enforcement officers to trick victims into sending them money.
Scammers often use real officer names like “Jesse Santos,” and spoof phone numbers to appear as if the call is coming from a legitimate police department. Victims may be told they missed jury duty, owe fines or that a loved one is in danger. Officials emphasize that real law enforcement will never demand payment over the phone and encourage residents to verify any suspicious calls directly through official numbers, not the numbers provided by the scam callers.
The commonality with all of these cases is to create a sense of urgency that only will be fixed if the scams receive some immediate form of payment.
“Unfortunately, I see a lot of impersonation cases,” Sedona Police Department Victim Advocate Jamelah Carswell said in a recent presentation to the Rotary Club of Sedona Red Rocks. “Whether it’s someone pretending to be a family member or a police officer. They’re even using [artificial intelligence] now, which is kind of scary … I get those types of cases a lot.”
“The most popular one is a claim of missed jury duty and then threatening them with arrest, that gets their attention,” Norfleet said. “We had a lady that lost almost $200,000 a couple months from that and she lost that money using crypto and that’s the popular payment the scammers are requesting now.”
Norfleet noted that cryptocurrency has replaced gift cards as scammers’ preferred payment method in recent months.
YCSO has responded by installing signage across the county at vending machines that sell cryptocurrency warning users before they make a purchase that scammers are pretending to be everything from government agencies to financial institutions.
“Claims about law enforcement finding an old fine that you need to take care of that was kind of popular about six months ago … but now it’s missing jury duty that seems to get the people’s attention,” Norfleet said.
Some recent incidents in Sedona of people falling victim to law enforcement imposters include a Sedona woman sending approximately $90,000 worth of bitcoin and gift cards to someone claiming to be with the Cyber Crime Department on April 21.
“Scammers are finding all kinds of ways to contact their victims,” Norfleet said. “It’s not just the sheriff’s office, it’s any law enforcement here. The Prescott and Prescott Valley Police Department they’ve had the same thing.”
On April 6 a Sedona resident was contacted by individuals claiming they were with the Sedona Police Department and told the victim that he had an outstanding warrant and he was required to send them money. Unfortunately, the victim proceeded to send a $25,000 cashier’s check.
On March 17 a Sedona man called a phone number displayed on an alert on his computer and talked to someone claiming to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation who proceeded to ask for payment, after the resident told that individual who he was informing his attorney. The resident subsequently received a call from someone claiming to be a SPD officer who threatened to arrest him.
In 2024 residents in unincorporated Yavapai County lost nearly $5.5 million to scammers, with an average reported loss of $22,000 according to YCSO. Statewide last year the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center “indicated” that Arizonans lost an estimated $392 million to fraudsters. Not all fraud cases are reported to law enforcement.
“In the same year, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office received nearly 22,000 consumer complaints from Arizonans; answered approximately 28,775 phone calls; and reviewed over 23,000 emails from consumers reporting potential fraud,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes wrote in a June 18 press release announcing a new consumer educational campaign to educate people how to spot scams.
That same week Mayes put out on alert for a mass text from scammers posing as the non-existent “Arizona Ministry of Communications” that was threatening prosecution and a suspension of driving privileges unless they received a payment.
“We keep getting them [and] this one will not go away it’s only about a year and a half old now, I’ve been putting out public service announcements on the [internet] on radios and newspapers and they just keep coming,” Norfleet said.
Contact the YCSO Fraud Department at (928) 771-3299 or (928) 771-3260. The fraud unit also provides public presentations on how to protect yourself from fraud.
The town of Clarkdale is also educating residents about the dangers of scams. During the town’s weekly update on June 13, Clarkdale Police Department Officer Gabidson Boisrond was educating a resident about a mass scam text that they received for an alleged outstanding ticket.
“If you receive a text or email you aren’t sure about, you’re welcome to contact the Police Department to verify,” the city of Clarkdale wrote in its update.
