(US) New sophisticated phone scam

I’m leaving the jail this afternoon after visiting a client and some guy comes up to me.

« Hey, do you work here? »

« Not really. What’s the question? »

Basically, his wife just got arrested. Someone called him, claiming to be a lawyer, and told him that if he put up $3200 for an ankle monitor he could get her out of jail, and to send the money and then meet him at the jail. Nobody shows at the jail. I tell him that it doesn’t sound like the way things are done there, and to ask at the front desk. Front desk tells him that there’s no way for her to get out until she sees the judge on Monday and has bail set and there’s no lawyer there by the name he was given. Not a name I’ve heard either, and I know everyone who practices criminal law in this county.

So some jerk found out, on the weekend, that his wife had been arrested, called him, and fed him a plausible story that cost him $3200. Sucks, of course, but it’s one I hadn’t heard of before.