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Natomas Woman Warning Others After Man Posing As Deputy Threatened Her Over Text

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Natomas mom is warning her community about a deputy impersonator. She says a man posing as a Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy told her she broke the law then threatened her.

To Navneet Kaur, it looked legitimate. "The way he comes across is very convincing," she said.

She got the call last week, from a so-called sheriff's deputy.

"I'm calling you from the non-emergency line of the sheriff's department," the message says.

Navneet called the number back. The man on the other line knew her address and where she worked. He told her she missed a court date, but couldn't say for what. That's when she knew it was a scam. Later she got a text message that this alleged officer was coming to arrest her.

"It was scary, and it's just kind of like, other than physical harm, what can they do with the personal information? Like it's so easy to fall for it," Kaur said.

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Then the conversation took a violent turn and he wrote, "I will rape you soon enough." Kaur is now fearful of what this fake "deputy" might do.

She said, "Where did he get the information and what else does he have?"

Officials say criminals clone legitimate phone numbers to give themselves credibility. That's why it looks like the sheriff's office is calling. They then learn about you by googling your name. And information from the sheriff's office is also available with the click of a button.

"Names and badge numbers are easily accessible," said Tess Deterding with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office.

Deterding says these cases are almost impossible to crack.

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"As people can imagine, there are other complications. I could be receiving this call from an entirely different country. So, tracking it down, identifying people on the other side of that phone, it's incredibly difficult and complex," she said.

Law enforcement would never call you demanding money or to tell you you're under arrest, Deterding said.

The sheriff's office said Kaur's case, where a threat was made, is serious. They say she did the right thing by reporting the incident so their team can gather as much information about these scammers as possible.

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