DOUG Talks to WAYNE COUNTY SHERIFF RAPHAEL WASHINGTON about Fraudsters Terrorizing The Community and using AI TECHNOLOGY

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yeah, Hi there, Detroit Wheels. Hi rafeel Washington, Wayne County Sheriff,
and Raphael. First off, thankyou for checking in to Detroit Wheels.
It's my pleasure. It's my pleasureto be here with you. So
I understand there are some crazy fraudstersout there terrorizing the community right now,
posing as federal agents and sheriffs,and the situation seems to have escalated.

(00:23):
So I know you want to talkabout it. Tell me a little bit
about this, Raphael. Yeah,So it's been happening for a little while
now. There's people out here whoare attempting to steal money basically from our
seniors and even just citizens in general, pretending to be the Wayne County Sheriff's

(00:44):
office, pretending that it's us callingthem telling them that they owe money for
various situations, whether they be missingdrury duty, grand jury duties, have
warrants against them, all just scamsto tear and get them to uh be
scared enough that they would start totake their money to places where they've been

(01:06):
told to drop it off, andthen there's their case will be uh a
dudicated. The rectifile you have tobe, you have to be, you
know, just leary of any timeyou get a phone call that says you
need money, right, so absolutelyabsolutely, But they're using from what I
understand, officer, they're using voicetechnology that may be a little hard to

(01:29):
determine whether or not it really isan officer or not. So, so
what are some of the rules behindthat. I mean, you guys would
never really tell somebody to to meetme at the corner and drop some money,
exactly, and and and you'd besurprised that the people that really fall
for that, uh they you know, they tell them all, you got
to take this money to this officeand then drop it in this uh uh

(01:56):
machine that's going to get the moneyto them, to the to the cariffs
agency. I mean, just allkinds of things that they're coming up with.
They'll even call and you'll hear backgroundnoise like it's a police station here
in radios with police jargon on it, and to make you really think this
is a police station calling. Andwe want our citizens to know that law

(02:19):
enforcement officers and agencies will never everever call you to tell you you owe
money and to bring it to alocation or drop it off to a location
you have a wart against you they'reusing the Sheriff's office. They use our
names, they use people that theylook up. They'll use a judge's name
that they'll look up and see ajudge. So to make these things look

(02:43):
very legitimate when they're actually a realfraud. There's fraud going on and some
people are falling for it. Andif you had enough time, I'll tell
you about one that we really stopped. Yea was on their way to lose
her life life savings. Lady istold to come down and drop her money
off. She He told her awhole lot of things about how she was
going to be arrested and if shedidn't do this. She took fourteen thousand

(03:06):
dollars of her money. Rand wasrunning to this location to put this money
in the machine. One of mydeputies happened to see her running a red
light, speeding down Ford Row.He pulled her over and she says,
she's screaming at him, I'm takingyou the money right now. I'm taking
it to you. You all toldme to bring it. I'm taking it
there now. The officers. Oneof my deputy said, what are you

(03:29):
talking about. We don't offer theSheriff's office. If not tell you to
take money somewhere for any reason,and she was like she was she didn't
know what to do. She waslike, no, you told me to
bring it, You told me todo it. And so we ended up
having to convince her that she wasbeing so victim of a scam that she
didn't need to pay attention to that. We took her to our office,

(03:51):
we spoke to her. She wesaved her from losing fourteen thousand dollars right
on the shod. Wow, that'sincredible, and it's just it's just a
boy, the grace of God andthe alertness of my deputy that he poured
her over and saved her life savingsand she's getting ready to buy a house.
I'm so glad we were where weshould have been to be able to

(04:15):
pull her or pull her over andsave her life savings or getting ready to
buy herself a home. Well,thank goodness for that officer that really took
the time to try and figure outjust you know what the panic was all
about. Absolutely, and she wasin a state of panic because she was
she felt like she was under thegun. She had to get this money
to this just did this machine beforethat, before we came and arrested her.

(04:41):
That's not how it goes. Yes, that's not how it goes.
And we need to let the citizensknow. Any law enforce for the agency,
they seem to be using hours quitea bit for whatever reason, but
any law enforce in agency, wedo not ask anyone to take money anywhere,
to drop money off. If youif if we want to talk to
you about something that's legitimate, youhave a warrant or something to that effect,

(05:05):
we're gonna come to your house andknock on your door. You follow
me, yes, and then we'regonna we're gonna have we're gonna be in
uniform. We're gonna have legitimate Uh. Badge is an ID. It's just
it's just it's just that's what wedo in law enforcement. We don't tell
you to take your money and andand drop it off somewhere and then your

(05:26):
case will go away. The frauds, the case that they just made up
to scare you that it's going togo away. No, your money is
going to go away. They're goingto steal your money, and so we
ask people to just be aware ofthat. So so I take it the
urgency here is that you're getting moreof these than just a trickle. You're
getting quite a few. Yes,this is an uptick and and and and

(05:50):
it's happening more and more because obviouslythe scammers are scamming people, and so
they get, they get, theybecome or greedy, and and and they
keep going, and they keep going. You figure if you're if it's a
scamming situation and they get hit somebodyfor fourteen thousand dollars in one shot,
they had a good day, yeah, yeah, yeah, And they're going

(06:12):
to keep going yeah, no,and they're going to keep going absolutely so.
So so we're just out here asa Wayne County Sheriff's office, myself,
Refel Washington, the sheriff, Iam obligated to teach the public on
how this goes, the scams,and how not to be a victim of
the scam. So if somebody doesget a call like that and they want

(06:32):
to question it, what can theydo? Can they call? Can they
email? Call my office? Okay, just they can They can call my
office at three one three two twofour seven four nine one. They can
call my office again at three onethree two two four seven four nine one.
That's the legitimate Wayne County Sheriff's office. It's actually my office, because

(06:57):
I want to know that this thatthese things are happening. So I and
keep educating the public and and andhopefully even gather some more intel intail some
intelligence on who these people are andtry to get to try to get a
stop to all of this madness that'sgoing on, because we don't want our
citizens to lose their money, theirlife saving so uh at some point and

(07:18):
and end up uh uh poor ornot having the money that they should have
had because they became a victim ofa scam. So what's your gut feeling
on this right now? Is itis it just you know, maybe like
one group of people, one individual, or is it widespread question? Great
question. I think it's widespread allover I get I get these calls all

(07:43):
day every day for whatever reason,from cities and all over the country,
and I pick up the phone becauseI want to know. I'm I'm the
police, Let me try to getme you know what I'm saying, and
so uh and then it ended upjust going to a beat or something.
You know. Yes, I don'tknow what's going on with these with with
with these scams and these these callsthat are coming through now, but you

(08:05):
need you need to know that ifyou feel like it's a scam, trust
your intuition and hang up the phone. Don't talk to them, don't try
to trap them up into anything,because while they while they're talking to you,
they're generating devices to steal from youat the same time. So so
just hang up the phone, don'ttalk to them if you don't know them,

(08:28):
and especially if they're telling you theirlaw enforcement and and and and and
you need to do whatever. Butthey're going to talk to you for a
while to try to convince you thatthey are law enforcement. Hang up the
phone. Please, there you go. We we we don't we we don't
want our citizens, especially if ourseniors, to become victim of a fraud

(08:50):
and some scam that's going on outhere, uh in our area right now.
That is just great advice for allour seniors or anybody really out there.
You never know who anybody, right, All right? Well, Wayne
County Sheriff Raphael Washington, thank youso much for informing us and keeping our
audience informed. And also just thankyou and all of your sheriffs out there

(09:13):
for Wayne County for everything that youguys do to help us. And congratulations
on the draft weekend. By theway, how about that, gus,
all that Detroit Police Department Chief JamesWhite, myself, Rafiel Washington, and
Wayne County Sheriff and other agencies throughoutsoutheast Michigan came in to Detroit and put

(09:33):
us on the map with safety andsecurity we were able to provide the over
seven hundred thousand people. Yes,sir, Yes, it was a good
It was a good draft. Ithink it was so nice that we should
do it twice, you know.All right, well, thank you,
Thank you Rafael Washington, Wayne CountySheriff for all that you do and for
all the information today. We appreciateit. Thank you so much, anytime,

(09:56):
anytime, all right, all right, we salute you, Thank you,
right bye bye,