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The Marietta Police Department and Washington County Sheriff's Office are warning residents about scams being perpetrated by people claiming to be their officers.
According to a statement issued by Marietta Police Capt. Aaron Nedeff, the department recently received two reports of citizens getting calls identified as coming from the department and its 740-376-2007 phone number.
Callers with foreign accents claimed to be city police officers, by name, and said they wanted to clear up matters - in one case identity theft, in another the purchase of chemicals used to make methamphetamine.
Both individuals had trouble understanding what the callers were saying, but Nedeff said the callers asked about financial information.
"Marietta Police Department will never ask for money to clear up an investigation or resolve something, nor will we request intimate details of your financial accounts over the phone," he said in the release.
In a post on its Facebook page, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said it received multiple reports Saturday of people receiving calls from a sheriff's office number. The callers claimed they had warrants for the people they were contacting and asked them to send money.
But that's not how the sheriff's office or other agencies operate, Chief Deputy Mark Warden said.
"We just don't do business that way," he said.
Warden said people who make these type of calls do research and use the names of real officers, perhaps retired.
"They try to make the scheme look legit," he said.
If someone is uncertain whether a caller is actually with a law enforcement agency, Nedeff said they should inform the caller they're hanging up, then call the department back - at Marietta, it's 740-373-4141 - to verify an actual officer on duty is trying to reach them. One of the recent scam targets even brought his phone into the department while the impostor was still on the line, he said.
Warden said the sheriff's office has been asking residents to notify them of such schemes, allowing them to share information on the latest scams on their Facebook page and website, washingtoncountysheriff.org.
Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard said his office hasn't had similar reports in the last week or so, but it is a problem with which they're familiar. Like his counterparts in Ohio, Woodyard noted the use of real officers' names and reiterated that his office does not conduct financial transactions or resolve criminal matters by phone.
"Nobody does," he said.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.