Midlothian, TX - Yesterday we responded to a fraud report involving a person falsely identifying themselves as a representative of Amazon and later as a Midlothian Police Officer.
The victim received a call from an individual claiming to be a service representative from Amazon, asking her to confirm if several large purchases made on her account were legitimate. When the victim denied the charges, the “Amazon service rep” asked her to confirm the location of her local police department so a report could be filed. The “Amazon” call came from a 334 area code.
Later in the day, the victim received a call from a person identifying himself as “Sgt. Hames Marshall” of the Midlothian Police Department. He stated that while conducting his investigation of the Amazon purchase, he discovered that the victim had outstanding warrants and told her that if she did not pay the warrants immediately, she would be arrested. Then "Sgt. Hames" texted her a photo of a bogus MPD identification card as well as two "vouchers" with instructions on how to pay the warrants via money transfer at Walmart.
The bogus call from MPD came from (972) 775-3331, which is similar to our number but is not a Midlothian Police Department exchange. A copy of the fake ID card the suspect texted is attached. While it does have a photo of one of our officers - likely taken from social media - we do not have a “Sgt. Hames Marshall” and the patch/badge, and signature from the Chief of Police are not accurate. The “vouchers” sent to the victim appear to be Walmart mobile money cards.
Please be aware that no police officer will ever take payment for an outstanding warrant in the field; those payments are made to the Court. Payment for outstanding warrants will never be made via Walmart gift cards.
If you have any questions, or if you ever feel the need to verify the identity of one of our officers, please call our real number which is (972) 775-3333.
