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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/spjspj31 on 2025-10-21 20:22:30+00:00.

I [32F, USA] consume lots of scam content. Podcasts, articles, Jim Browning youtube videos, etc. I assumed because I am so informed, I was immune to scams. I was very wrong.

I am currently 3 weeks postpartum with a wonderful newborn baby boy. As a result, I am currently home alone with a baby all day every day and am extremely sleep deprived (for context, I currently only get 3-4 hours of sleep per night). As such, I was in a particularly vulnerable state for scams, though of course I did not realize this.

So yesterday I got a phone call claiming to be from my county sheriff’s office (spoofing the caller ID). I recently had a (real and kinda scary) interaction with my county sheriff’s office related to a car accident my husband was in, and this call started very similarly to that phone call (and came from the same number), so I inherently trusted it. The ‘officer’ informed me that I had missed a court summons and thus was in contempt of court and a warrant was out for my arrest. They knew my address, phone number, and email (as well as the contact info of my family members) so I believed it was real. They also were clearly using some kind of voice changer as they sounded just like police officers in my city (I’m in the southern US, so with fairly real sounding southern accents).

I was told that I could resolve the issue quickly by simply showing up to the county courthouse and filling out some paperwork. They gave me lots of information about what exactly I was charged with, the timeline, my options for clearing it, etc, and in the moment it seemed legit enough for me to trust it. This was all very stressful but just filling out some paperwork seemed pretty minor to avoid being arrested, so I agreed to get in the car and go to the courthouse to get it resolved.

However, once I was in the car, they then told me I needed to first take out cash to pay my bond, to the amount of $20,000, which I would then need to deposit at a ‘federal bond deposit box’ in order for my arrest warrant to be dismissed. This should have been a big red flag of course, but at that point they had already convinced me that I had to resolve this today or I would be arrested. Given I have a newborn, the thought of being arrested and being away from him is absolutely terrifying, so I was willing to do whatever possible to avoid that. They also told me that I was under a gag order and if I spoke to anyone or told anyone what I was doing, the terms of warrant dismissal would be violated. Right when I got the initial phone call I texted my family telling them I was on the phone with the police (before they told me about the gag order). So when my family then called/texted me back and I didn’t respond (for over an hour), my family started to totally freak out.

So, while my family is constantly calling me to see if I’m okay (and, under the clear instruction of the ‘police’, I’m ignoring them), I stayed on the line with the scammer and drove to a bank to take out cash. The scammer checked in on me every 3 minutes, demanded to know my location, and told me if I hung up the phone, I would be arrested because police were tracking my location.

The first two banks I went to understandably refused to give me $20k cash, as the situation looked way too suspicious (young, disheveled, mom with a newborn in tow trying to empty every single one of her bank accounts for cash is, uh, highly suspect). Pretty sure one very kind bank teller thought my life was in danger when I started crying in front of her begging for cash, and she nearly called the police. The scammer kept telling me I was going to be arrested if I couldn’t get the money, so in tears and in a total panic, I drove to a third bank branch which somehow did in fact let me take out the $20k cash.

Once I told the scammer I had the cash, he directed me a nearby gas station to deposit the cash and receive my ‘bond receipt’. It was at this point (after 2.5 hours on the phone with the scammer) that I realized it was a scam, as the instructions he sent me for how to deposit the money were actually for how to buy bitcoin. Upon realizing it was a scam, I immediately texted my family that I was okay and hung up the phone with the scammer (who then proceeded to try to call me back maybe 30-40 times over the next hour).

At that point, I was relieved that I hadn’t lost the money and wasn’t under arrest, but I was terrified for my safety, as the guy on the phone knew exactly which bank I was at and that I had $20k cash. Turns out my husband had been tracking my location and was trying to find me as he was convinced I was being held at gunpoint or that our baby had been kidnapped. I therefore got into my husband’s car with my baby and we drove around for a bit in a panic until we felt more confident that the scammers probably weren’t actually tracking our location.

I am still feeling very traumatized by the whole experience. I spent 2+ hours driving around my city visiting different banks all with my newborn in tow while a ‘police officer’ told me I would be arrested if I didn’t take out cash, deposit my bond and go to the courthouse ASAP. I sobbed and sobbed on the phone with the scammer about how I can’t be arrested because I have a newborn, but he did not exactly show much sympathy. I am so very grateful I didn’t lose any money (bitcoin deposits is a big enough red flag that even in my weakened mental state, I picked up on that), but I not only traumatized myself but also my family who were convinced I was in grave danger.

I’m sharing my story here because I truly NEVER thought this could happen to me. You may think I’m silly for falling for this (I think so too), but it felt just so real in the moment and my sleep-deprived, very stressed, hormonal postpartum brain ignored all the red flags until the biggest one. And yes, I am very fortunate that I didn’t lose any money, but the terror I felt during this whole experience (thinking I was about to be arrested with my baby) will definitely take me some time to work through. Not to mention my family who are now all angry at me for terrifying them as well.