Report: Imposter scams Beaufort man by pretending to be a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputy

A Beaufort man was scammed out of an undisclosed amount of money after someone called him in reference to a missed court date, pretending to be a Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputy, a report said.

The man received a call on Friday from a man who claimed to be a deputy with Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. The person advised the victim that he missed his court date and a new date was set, according to a report from the Sheriff’s Office.

The victim said the man then informed him that he needed to pay an undisclosed amount of money for failure to appear in court and instructed him to put the money of four Green Dot Cards. The man told the victim to call him and give him the codes on the back of the cards once he completed the purchase, the report said.

The victim, a doctor at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, said he did what the man asked because he was seeing patients and did not want to be arrested in front of them.

After following the man’s instructions, the victim said something “did not feel right,” and he went to cancel the cards, but they were already emptied of the cash, the report said.

A deputy at the Sheriff’s Office attempted to contact the phone number given to the victim, but the number just rings, the report said.

The amount of money scammed from the victim was not disclosed in the report.

This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 2:46 PM with the headline "Report: Imposter scams Beaufort man by pretending to be a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputy."