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Fraudulent activity attempted on a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office social media site

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office was notified by the social media site Nextdoor.com that a person(s) had contacted them in an attempt to gain access to our account by posing as a “lieutenant” with the sheriff’s office. Due to the suspicious nature of information contained within the application, Nextdoor denied the request and contacted us about the attempt. A few days later, the manager of Boulder County’s Nextdoor account was also notified of an attempt to start a new Nextdoor account by a person with a different name claiming to be a “dispatch supervisor” working for Boulder County.

This second attempt included information about a website the person(s) claimed to be in development, which had a banner on the website saying they were, “Managing incidents, emergencies, and notifying the public to ensure safety.” Their email and website also said it was a place where residents could “pay fines.”

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the attempt by this person(s) to impersonate a peace officer, and likely attempt to conduct a scam that would have Boulder County residents paying fines, real or fake, via their website. We want to make sure Boulder County residents are aware of this fake website and don’t fall victim to any attempts by this person(s) to gain access to their personal identifying information and/or monetary payments.

This is a good reminder that scam artists are using sophisticated techniques to scam and commit fraudulent activities. Residents are urged to always stay vigilant when they are contacted by a person who claims to be from law enforcement or another government agency, and they are requesting payment for fines, tickets, missing jury duty, past due taxes, etc., especially if they are threatening arrest, demanding immediate payment over the phone or via gift cards, or requesting personal identifying information. These are almost all likely scams or attempts at some type of fraudulent activity. You are encouraged to directly contact the agency they said they are from by looking up the contact information yourself, and not using a phone number or website they give you.

The only legitimate websites that are associated with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Boulder County, or the Boulder Office of Emergency Management are:

www.bouldersheriff.org

www.bouldercounty.org

www.boulderoem.com

www.governmentjobs.com (job postings and applications)

In addition, we do accept online payments of traffic tickets, civil service, records payments, but they are only through the State of Colorado pay portal: www.colorado.gov.

The associated case number is: 18-1725.

 

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