EVANSTON — Phone scams are nothing new — whether it’s someone claiming to be the victim’s grandson under arrest in Mexico or Canada or someone claiming to be from the IRS and threatening arrest. Those are just two of the many claims scam artists use to try to bilk people out their hard-earned money.

After the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning Thursday about telephone scams, Evanston Police Lt. Ken Pearson said it won’t be long until Uinta County is targeted … again.

In fact, Pearson said, local residents are constantly targets of phone scams, and no matter who the caller claims to be, inevitably, there are some who fall for the scam.

“We get people that come in the lobby pretty much every other day,” Pearson said, “at a minimum. If they’re hitting Sweetwater, they’ll be hitting our area soon.”

The particular scam that led to the Sweetwater official’s warning involves a caller claiming to be law enforcement and threatening to arrest the victim, often elderly, for evading jury duty.

“Callers are instructing their would-be victims to purchase e-vouchers or reloadable debit cards for between $750 and $1,500 at stores such as Smith’s, then call what appears to be a Wyoming number (area code 307) for further instructions,” Sweetwater County Detective Dick Blust said in a press release. “The same fake Wyoming number will also appear on the victim’s caller ID.”

Those instructions include providing the caller with the voucher or card number. Once that’s provided, the victim can kiss their money goodbye.

“We can’t do a thing about it,” Pearson said. “[The calls] come from offshore.”

Pearson said victims can report it to the Federal Trade Commission, but added that even federal agents are somewhat powerless because the calls are coming from places like Ethiopia or Somalia.

 Pearson said people should recognize these scams by now.

“If you’ve never broken a law in your life,” he said, “why would you be sending $1,500 to anybody?”

Pearson said that in addition to the scam reported by Sweetwater County residents, Uinta County residents should expect to receive calls about similar scams.

“In the spring, it wll be the IRS,” he said. “They’ll be calling because you haven’t filed your taxes, you owe back taxes, blah, blah, blah.”

Or, Pearson continued, a caller might claim “you’ve won the Jamaican lottery, but [they say] you have to spend $1,500 to get it. Did you enter the Jamaican lottery? Jamaica doesn’t even have a lottery.”

He said most phone scams don’t target the elderly or any other demographic — anyone could be at risk to fall victim.

In the Sweetwater County press release, Blust urges people to write down the name of the agency the scammer claims to be working for and write down the phone number that appeared on their caller ID. He said to then call the agency to see if the call is legitimate. He urged would-be victims never to provide callers with personal or financial information.

For more information on this and many other fraud schemes, law enforcement officials recommend the FBI website at http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud.