Local sheriff confident scammers were Georgia inmates
ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) – The Madison County Sheriff said he’s now 99 percent sure the phone scammers he was looking for were inmates in a Georgia prison.
Federal authorities recently uncovered a money laundering scheme within the Autry State Prison in Georgia. Madison County Sheriff Scott Mellinger said the recent influx of people reporting phone scams to his office has now stopped.
A statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office said 17 former or current Georgia inmates were running a nationwide phone scam from the prison.
Mellinger said his department and federal authorities were investigating two of the same phone numbers, and he said the calls described by federal detectives were extremely similar to the calls people got in Madison County.
The sheriff said more than 100 people called his office since November to report scammers telling people they missed jury duty, and they could only avoid jail time if they pay a fine.
FBI agents said that’s the exact script for a scam inmates were running. Now the inmates are caught, and Mellinger said no one’s reported the scam in more than two weeks.
Mellinger said the scam was so rampant, he decided to call a scammer himself last month. He said he listened to someone tell him he owed money to the Madison County Sheriff.
Then he told that person he is the Madison County Sheriff.
“He said, ‘Okay, if you’re the sheriff, instead of asking you for $350 which is what we do for most victims, how about you give us $5,000 and then we will leave your county alone?’” Mellinger said.
The sheriff hung up, but first, he told the other guy that, “Only the lowest person in the world tries to take advantage of senior citizens, and you’re one of those people.”
Federal officials said the inmates smuggled cell phones into the Autry State Prison, sometimes with the help of corrections officers. More than 50 people were charged in the operation, including corrections officers and inmates.
A spokesman for the FBI declined to comment on whether inmates made calls to Madison County, stating that the investigation is ongoing.
