05/29/2024
SCAM ALERT:
Although SJCSO is aware and have warnings posted on their Jail Log, I want to take the opportunity to warn my friends, clients and community. There has been a scam going on in Saint Johns county for well over a year. There is a man or group of well organized and educated (in bail bonds) criminals calling families to solicit funds in order to have their loved ones released from jail. These people (defendants) are actually incarcerated in the jail at the time of these solicitations….
Here’s how it works:
The criminals will look on the jail website (which is public record, and anyone can do). The scammer(s) will use a online search engine or paid tracking information site and find any relative with a listed phone number and call the family member. The scammer will tell the family member they have a daughter/son in jail and that they have spoken ,and are ready and able to get a bond submitted to the jail for their release… a lot like a real surety agent (bondsman) will do! Some of the people do not even have a bond amount to be released but the scammer promises they have an “in” at the jail and can submit one anyway…
Here’s the deal… a bond amount it ALWAYS, 10% for each charge over 1k and 100$ for anything under 1k per charge. The scammer will always try to get well over the amount, not to mention will tell you they have other charges you cannot see or they will have to be paid more if a vehicle has been towed or impounded.
Bondsman only deal in pre trial release.. and NOTHING else. The rates of these bonds are governed by the Florida Department of Financial Services. It is illegal to request a dollar under or over what the State has deemed!
What a bondsman WILL NOT DO ( that a scammer will) is tell you to pay with either cash app or similar payments or tell you to go and get gift cards and call them back… a real bondsman will only take one of 3 payments, which are CASH, CARD or on rare occasions Certified Bank Checks.
These scammers will use a legitimate Bailbonds’s business based in your county like mine or a mixture of several legitimate Bailbonds’s businesses. For example they will say this is so and so from A1 Bailbonds, they won’t use my full business name because they are educated enough to know that if the use my real name and real business name that that constitutes a federal crime. However, they sometimes will so be careful (they could care less about the law).
Here’s what you need to know and how to protect yourself:
A bondsman like myself will sometimes call you from an outside line. For instance we do not live at our offices, we may be operating 24 hours but we do have homes and families. So, when we leave the office we forward our office lines to our personal cell phone. It is not uncommon or unusual for a defendant to reach out to a bondsman when we are out of the office, and also, just as common we will call a family member from our cell phones.
This is what I suggest: if a bondsman calls you and tells you your loved one is in jail, ask them their name and correct spelling of the bailbonds business they are claiming to be from and tell them you will call them back! The scammer doesn’t want to let you off that phone call. They prey on emotion and snap judgment so if they give you a million excuses why you should deal with them right there on the spot it’s probably A SCAM!
Next, call the SJC Jail and verify your loved one is in fact incarcerated and how much the charges are ,and how much it is for their release.
Once this is verified, go on google and look up the Bailbonds business by name and call the number showing on that google page! You will 100% get ahold of that very same person that called you… (if it is a legitimate bondsman) if you don’t,… ITS A SCAM!
One last thing… I have reported this several times. I have made several police reports.. I have been on the my904 with this scam information and spoken on it “on air”. This Man, ( which I use the term VERY LOOSELY) has a thick southern panhandle accent and usually calls from an Alabama area code.
Be safe out there folks and please share with anyone and everyone!!! When people no longer fall for this, they/ he will have no choice but to move on from our community!
