Oconee County Sheriff's Office Crime Report

Oconee Service Station Employee Scammed by Caller

The clerk activated four $500 calling cards over the phone for someone claiming to be from the "corporate office."

A warning to employees of stores that offer calling cards: if you get a call from someone asking for activation of cards over the phone, verify the transaction first. A Circle M employee recently learned that the hard way. On Nov. 16, she told an Oconee County Sheriff's deputy she'd received a call from a lady named "Nancy" claiming to be from the "corporate office."  The caller instructed the clerk to get four $500 Vanilla Reload calling cards and activate them.  The clerk did as she was told and afterward called the company to confirm the activation, but was told the transaction was fraudulent, according to an incident report.

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Oconee County Sheriff's Office Crime Report

Oconee Man Reports Phone Scam

The victim says he paid $200 over the phone to someone he thought was a representative of a utility company after being threatened with disconnection of service.

An Oconee County man was scammed out of $200 last week by someone who called him and pretended to be a representative of a utility company. The man told Sheriff's deputies Wednesday that someone called him and claimed that he owed $200 to have his power box fixed.  If the man didn't pay, the caller told him his electricity would be disconnected, according to an incident report. The man went to a local pharmacy and purchased a prepaid money card in the amount of $200.  After he paid, the man contacted his power company about the incident. The company informed him that he had been the victim of a scam, the man told deputies.

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Oconee County Sheriff's Office Crime Report

Man Thinks He's Buying Home Theater Equipment, Takes Home Rocks

The scam took place Monday in the parking lot of Home Depot on Epps Bridge Road, according to an incident report at the Oconee County Sheriff's Office.

The packaging appeared to be new, but a man quickly found out the box containing what he thought was a home theater system he'd purchased from another man in the Home Depot parking lot contained something unexpected: rocks. According to an incident report at the Oconee County Sheriff's Office, the victim was offered the equipment around 3:30 in the afternoon, and he withdrew $800 from his bank account to pay for it.  When he got home, however, he realized not all of the equipment was functioning; rocks were glued inside some of the items to mimic the weight of real equipment. The Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook the following warning about the scam: If someone approaches you in a parking lot offering you a could deal on electronics, be …

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Watkinsville Police Chief Warns of New Scam

Police Chief Lee O'Dillon said a criminal is impersonating an Oconee County Utility Department employee in an attempt to capitalize on a recent news story.

A scammer is looking to rip off Oconee County residents by taking advantage of the City of Watkinsville's plan to implement a faster emergency notification system by working in conjunction with Oconee County government. At the Watkinsville City Council meeting on Feb. 9, city officials discussed the recent boil-water advisory incident and said they planned to inquire into whether they may be able to use a county calling system to send out a telephone alert in the event of an emergency. Watkinsville Police Chief Lee O'Dillon said in a news release this week that a con man has "tried to cash-in on the situation." "A resident of Christian Lake Subdivision advised City police that a white male came to her home on Sunday (Feb. 20) and …

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