BATON ROUGE — John* and Ann* don’t know each other, but they recently traveled a similar path: a loved one in jail, a call offering help, and a scammer on the other end. But that’s where the similarities end, because one of them lost hundreds of dollars, and the other called for advice.
The calls
John received a call from a restricted number. The caller, whose name he doesn’t remember, said they knew his loved one was in jail, and they were calling from On Time Bail Bonds in Baton Rouge. On Time Bail Bonds is a legitimate company that the unnamed scammer said he worked for, but apparently did not. Under the pretense of being a bondsman, the scammer told John they could get his loved one out of jail, and he wouldn’t have to go to the jail to pick them up.
“I was like, ‘That sounds wonderful. Let’s do that,’” John said. “And then came payment options. They attempted a Zelle payment, but it fell flat. Zelle flagged it as a fraudulent. There were three Zelle attempts to three different names.” There was an alleged CashApp attempt after that, which also didn’t go through.
Ann’s call came from a man who said his name was Sergeant Stephen Brown. He said he knew she had a relative who was in jail, and they were processing them out. In order to do that, Brown told Ann she needed to purchase an ankle monitor…