LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Families across the area are receiving alarming phone calls from scammers claiming a loved one is in jail and can only get out if money is paid immediately.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement said this scam is happening more often than people may think.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlow down the sheriffs office and the detention center we\u2019re not going to call you and demand money over the phone,\u201d Corporal Traci Manthei with the Lubbock County Sheriff\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n
Investigators say the scam usually starts with a phone call that sounds convincing. A stranger claims a son, daughter or spouse is in jail and can get out quickly for a price.<\/p>\n
The callers mention ankle monitors, bond fees or say the jail is overpopulated and money will speed up the release. Manthei said that\u2019s not how any of this works and scammers rely on fear, not facts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will ask for card numbers and then tell you that card number didn\u2019t work and they and get another card number. If you pay them the first time lets say you pay the fee of the bond they\u2019re asking for. Then, they\u2019ll say oh we need a processing fee then they\u2019ll add another fee,\u201d Manthei said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said one of the easiest ways to avoid scams is through their mobile app. <\/p>\n
Inside the app, there\u2019s a section called Active Local Scams. The jail release scam section explains what scammers are looking for, what they may say and tells users that no jail will ever demand money over the phone to free someone.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake a moment if there\u2019s someone in trouble legally there\u2019s normally a process, a court involved, there\u2019s agencies involved that have public numbers that you can find. I would not give money over the phone I would ask for the information hang up and find that public number and call,\u201d Manthei said.<\/p>\n
The information scammers use isn\u2019t hard to find. Inmate records are public, making it easy for them to research a real person and build a believable story.<\/p>\n
The jail call is only one example. Manthei said scammers constantly switch schemes to sound new.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also get calls about people saying you missed jury duty, you didn\u2019t pay a city fine and now there\u2019s a warrant out for your arrest, I want to remind everybody we don\u2019t call to tell you that there\u2019s a warrant for your arrest, we\u2019ll just come and arrest you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
If you believe you are a victim, call your bank right away, report the transaction as fraud and get in touch with local law enforcement so they can start an investigation.<\/p>\n
The Lubbock County Sheriff\u2019s Office app is available for Apple <\/a>and Google Play <\/a>devices.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Families across the area are receiving alarming phone calls from scammers claiming a loved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[319,66,56287,168,13589,19888,170,169,223,4922,56288],"class_list":{"0":"post-131148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-kcbd","9":"tag-local","10":"tag-lsco","11":"tag-lubbock","12":"tag-lubbock-county","13":"tag-lubbock-county-sheriffs-office","14":"tag-lubbock-headlines","15":"tag-lubbock-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-sheriff","18":"tag-traci-manthei"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}