Sheriff’s Department Issues “Bail Scam Warning”

(Undated) — The Crawford County Sheriff’s Department has issued a “Scam Warning.” The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public about a scam targeting families of local inmates. According to Crawford County Sheriff, Bill Rutan, scammers are now exploiting the jail roster. Rutan reminds the public that Illinois does not have cash bail. Since September 18th, 2023, no one can be released from jail by paying cash bail. He says scammers are using publicly available jail rosters to contact families and claim they can “bond out” an inmate if money orders or other payments are sent. He says this is a scam and the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office will never ask for money orders, gift cards, wire transfers, or cash to release an inmate. Rutan says do not go to Walmart or use a cash app like PayPal, Venmo, etc., attempting to bail someone out. Rutan says if you have any questions or concerns, please call his office before making a big mistake. These scam phone calls are typically numbers that are coming up as unavailable. They likely will say they are calling from the CCSO.