David Y. Ige

HONOLULU – The Department of the Attorney General has documented a number of people who have reported calls from a person claiming to be with a law enforcement entity soliciting payments. The caller appears to be targeting registered sex offenders and requesting them to wire money to fulfill sex offender registration obligations or face getting arrested.

This is a scam.

Law enforcement agencies will not call to inform you of an arrest warrant and tell you an arrest can be avoided if payments are transmitted via wire, money card, or other means of monetary transmittals. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies will not ask anyone for banking/personal information and make threats of arrest.

If you are in doubt, hang up the phone. Scammers will utilize burner phone numbers and they are nearly impossible to track. These scammers may be operating outside of the United States.

This is a nationwide scam and has been going on for about a year. If you have been victimized by this scam please call Attorney General Investigations at (808) 587-4373.

It’s important that during this trying time, all residents remain vigilant about any kinds of scams.  This includes when online shopping, as well as in communications with those offering what seem to be too-good-to-be-true opportunities. Common scams include, but are not limited to, the following categories – cyber scams, telephone and text messaging scams, counterfeit product offers, bogus door to door tests and virus-related products, and phony charity donation requests.

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For more information, contact:

Krishna F. Jayaram
Special Assistant to the Attorney General
(808) 586-1284
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://ag.hawaii.gov
Twitter: @ATGHIgov