The Halifax County Sheriff’s Office has experienced an influx of attempted scams in the last two weeks.

There are three different offender sets, according to Major Bruce Temple.

The first is an American-sounding male who called a resident representing Publishers Clearinghouse. The man told the potential victim they won a sweepstakes worth $500,000.00.

The scammer instructed the winner to go to Wal-Mart and purchase cash cards, relay the codes back to the caller, who would then access the funds allegedly for processing fees.

The area code on the number was displaying a Nevada area code.

A second resident reported they received calls from a female with a foreign accent, possibly from the Virgin Islands.

This caller also told the resident they won a sweepstakes worth several thousands of dollars.

The source phone number was found to be from a South American island.

The caller also directed the winner to go to Wal-Mart and obtain cash cards as the previous instance.

The caller told the resident that they would be sending representatives, along with an IRS official, to their residence to bring cash winnings and checks totaling $700,000 after they received funds from the resident.

A secondary attempt to obtain the processing fees was done by asking the victim to send cash via Western Union to an account based in Florida

A third resident reported that they received checks in the mail that were meant to be cashed with funds sent back to the scam operators through cash cards. The mail was sent from Canada and the checks are counterfeit.

“In all cases, residents say that the callers are very convincing,” Temple said. “We experience a common influx during tax return season and all three scams are nothing new. Residents can expect increased email with similar attempts to scam. We know that most people do not contact law enforcement when approached because of past awareness that the media provides, however, we wanted to remind the public of the methods being utilized in our area.”

In any legitimate sweepstakes, if there were processing fees, they would be deducted from winnings. Publishers Clearinghouse will only contact winners via certified mail or in person. “We would encourage the public not to be manipulated by these scammers, never send them any money, and to call law enforcement if ever approached by people claiming to be representatives.”