Aug. 6—Debbie Stone didn't know her son had been booked into the Morgan County Jail when she got a mysterious phone call. The man on the other end of the phone said he worked for a local bail bonding company. The company stopped taking cash since COVID, he told her, and in order to get her son out of jail, she'd have to send payment over Cash App.
"I tried to send the money, but my bank came right back saying this might be a scam," said Stone. "When I talked to my son, he hadn't even been in there long enough to talk to a bail bondsman."
The strange caller was persistent. He gave her the name of his "secretary's" Cash App and told her to try again. Meanwhile, Stone's husband arrived at the jail and met Garret Taylor, the owner of CJ's Bail Bonding.
"He said, 'I was about to send you some money,'" said Taylor. "I said, 'I haven't talked with you, sir.'"
Taylor, familiar with the tactics of scammers, realized what was going on. Stone's husband quickly called his wife to warn her. Fortunately, Stone's alarm bells had been ringing since the first failed transaction, and she never tried the "secretary."
Others have been less fortunate. Taylor said that, this past week alone, citizens have been scammed out of $5,000 to $7,000 from callers pretending to work for his company.
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Inmate roster
The scam isn't new. Both Taylor and Sadie West, the office manager for Three Sisters Bail Bonding, said instances such as Stone's have been happening for more than a year. The scammers, however, are apparently adapting and even using fake paperwork.
"The issue we're having is that I've been trying to hamper this behavior from these scammers for over a year now," said West. "I've reported it to everybody that will listen. Every sheriff's office, every police station. I called the FBI."
West said she had her clients print out evidence, and she took it to the Morgan County Sheriff's Office over a year ago.
"What I was told by their IT guy, was that by the time they traced these phone numbers and these Cash Apps, these scammers have almost immediately moved on to new Cash Apps and new phone numbers," she said. "I don't even know that any of them are local, because this is the kind of scam that — you could be sitting in Ohio and call someone."
Both Taylor and West said they suspect the scammers are combing through the inmate roster on the MCSO website and using tools like PeoplesFinders.com to find the phone numbers of relatives.
"The biggest thing people usually say to me is, 'Well I don't know how they would have gotten my phone number, and so that's the reason I believed it,'" West said.
Taylor said people who thought they paid his company, only for their loved ones to remain incarcerated, have been calling him and threatening to file lawsuits. He thinks that if MCSO closes the inmate roster to the public for 90 days, the scammers might move on to a new target.
"I think it would stop the bleeding," he said. "What I'm saying is, let's say you take it down and only have it for people like our agency to be able to look at it."
MCSO spokesman Mike Swafford said that's not an option.
"It would remove access to information that the public has a right to," he said. "Jail rosters are a standard part of almost all jail facilities." — How to avoid
West said if people understood how bail bond companies work, they would be better equipped to spot red flags.
"The bottom line is if they're contacting you, and they're asking for payment over the phone without meeting you at the jail, it's a scam," she said. "If they refuse to meet you at the jail, then you know they're not legitimate."
West said her company always prefers to meet clients at the jail since they must fill out and submit paperwork there anyway. On rare occasions, with well-known clients, they will accept payment over the phone if requested. Three Sisters doesn't accept payment via Cash App or Venmo. Most clients pay with cash or card, or through a secure app that Three Sisters uses called Clover, which is like PayPal.
CJ's Bail Bonding only accepts cash or card and recommends clients meet their bondsman at the jail unless they personally know them.
Swafford said MCSO routinely updates the public on the "numerous" scams in the area through its website and social media. He offered the following advice:
—The Sheriff's Office does not call and ask for money.
—Money cannot make a warrant go away.
—The bond process requires meeting and completing paperwork.
—When in doubt, hang up and call the company/agency at their published phone number.
Taylor said he's reported the scams to the Decatur Police Department. The FBI won't open an investigation until they receive 150 individual complaints, according to both Taylor and West.
DPD spokeswoman Irene Cardenas-Martinez said scammers typically prey on emotions to convince victims to send money.
"Don't fall for scare tactics and resist the pressure to act immediately," she said. "Hang up and call the company directly to verify the legitimacy of the call."
While Three Sisters bore the brunt of the scams a year ago, according to West, they seem to be focused on CJ's Bail Bonding now.
"It's hard to prove to a thousand people that you're not stealing from them," said Taylor. "So, you know, I'm concerned for the business. Heck, if people think you're stealing from them and you're doing shady stuff, before you know it they'll be busting your windows in or trying to burn you down or making threats."
The Decatur Daily on Monday morning tried calling the number of the scammer who had contacted Stone. The number held a southwestern Alabama area code. In the afternoon, our call was returned.
"Is this CJ's Bail Bonding?" we asked.
"Yes, who is this?" the man said.
He immediately hung up the phone on learning it was The Daily. Further calls went straight to a voicemail inbox that had not been set up.
— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.
