So far, police haven't identified the scammers, who are posing as police.
"In our case, it is the elderly and we've probably had close to 10 cases," said Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison.
Harrison is sounding on the scam that comes in as a phone call.
"They're doing it through computers," said Harrison. "There's a way they can go from one computer to another to make it harder for us to track."
The calls show up on caller ID as 911, Raleigh P.D. or some other false reading. The scammer identifies themselves as a real law officer, and demands money to skip jail time.
"They're saying you have run a red light, or you got caught on a red light camera, or you didn't come to jury duty," said Harrison.
The sheriff said the caller tells people they can avoid charges by going to a Walmart and buying a prepaid Mastercard to wire money to an account.
"We don't do that by phone," said Harrison.
Cash demands from a purported 911 call center are the same crimes Cary police reported last week. The sheriff says if you get one, you should dial up police and ask lots of questions.
"They need to make sure any call, if it doesn't sound right, to do some follow up," said Harrison.
If a caller identifies themselves as an officer, you should get their name and title, and the name of their supervisor and verify that information with by calling police or even 911.
Harrison says you should never respond to a request you don't understand thoroughly.
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