Sheriff Brian Bellendir warns that people should not believe telephone callers who claim to be from the Barton County Warrant Task Force.

Bellendir said Tuesday that several people have received these bogus telephone calls, in which someone identifying himself as a Barton County Sheriff’s Office deputy claims there is a warrant for their arrest and threatens them with arrest unless they provide their credit card numbers.

“This is all nonsense,” Bellendir said. “We don’t have a Warrant Task Force.”

Even though the calls appear to come from local telephone numbers and the callers use local names, including the name of a real BCSO deputy, they are fake.

Bellendir advised anyone who receives such a call to hang up. Don’t give the caller any personal information.

Telephone scam attempts are common and sometimes they are successful. Bellendir said that last week his office learned of an individual who lost $16,000 in the course of several months. In that case, the individual sent Walmart gift cards to satisfy what appeared to be claims from the Internal Revenue Service.

The Federal Trade Commission reports that IRS imposters are a problem, but Social Security Administration imposters have now surpassed them in consumer loss reports.