Oops. Scammer tries to scam the wrong guy — a former U.S. attorney for Kansas | Opinion
If you’re trying to run a scam, trying to run it on a former United States attorney seems pretty dumb — even dumber to try it twice.
But that’s what a scammer with a phony arrest warrant and a Los Angeles phone number tried to pull on Barry Grissom, the former chief federal prosecutor for the state of Kansas.
“Actually, they had called me last week, and I just said, “This is a scam,” (And they said) ‘No, it’s not a scam’” Grissom said. “I said, ‘Well, I’m a former United States Attorney here in Kansas, yes, it’s a scam.’ And they hung up.”
And then on Monday, they called again.
“I thought, well, I’m just going to let them go ahead and just run the full thing like I don’t know what’s going on and I’m scared,” Grissom said.
The callers were pretending to be “Sgt. James” and “Lt. Boyd” of the Johnson County sheriff’s department. And they told Grissom that a $45,000 arrest warrant had been issued on him for — get this — failure to appear for federal court jury duty.
As Grissom played along, they sent him a fake warrant in the nonexistent case of “United States of America v. Barry Grissom,” signed by the aforementioned (and also nonexistent) Lt. Chris Boyd.
Grissom asked for the address of the sheriff’s department. “They gave me some address that is nowhere near Kansas, a ZIP Code of 31096.”
I looked it up and that is a Johnson County ZIP code — Johnson County, Georgia.
So I called both Johnson counties and found out that neither has a Sgt. James or a Lt. Boyd. McKenzi Davis, public information officer for the JoCo Kansas sheriff, said they once had a Sgt. James, but he retired 30 years ago.
But back to Grissom’s story: “He (the scammer) said you need to go to your car and drive to your bank . . . keep us on the line.
“You go in and we’ll give you a number to send ($45,000) to a federal kiosk . . . and then we will send you a certificate you can take to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and have the warrant released.”
Grissom said he wasn’t sure he could keep the phone connection open and asked for a return number in case the call got cut off. Shockingly, the guy gave him one — 747-212-6854. (If it ever pops up on your caller ID, don’t answer).
Grissom asked if the warrant had to do with the federal courthouse in Johnson County. And the scammer assured him it did.
“At that point, I thought, I’ll just let the cat out of the bag,” Grissom said. “I said, ‘Well, I’ve practiced law for 42 years, and I’ve appeared quite often in federal court. I’ve never been to a federal courthouse in Johnson County.’”
And the phone went “Click.”
Later, Grissom called the number he got from “Sgt. James,” and sure enough, the scammer answered.
The 747 area code is out in my old neck of the woods, in and around California’s San Fernando Valley.
So to scammer 747-212-6854, whoever you are: You just tried to swindle a former federal prosecutor, and you gave him a working phone number, you meathead.
You might want to think about dropping off the grid for a little while. Pro tip from a former local: the Angeles National Forest is nice this time of year.
