Canadian County Sheriff Deputy prevents a woman from giving thousands of dollars to a scammer

CANADIAN COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) - A woman almost sent $9,000 to a scammer pretending to be a sheriff's deputy. Now the sheriff's office is putting out another warning about potential scammers.

Canadian County Sheriff Chris West says Captain Gail Wilhite stopped a driver who appeared to be in distress.

"But he doesn't realize that she's on the phone with a scammer saying that he's a captain with the Canadian County Sheriff's Office," said Sheriff West.

A scammer was just moments away from getting the woman to give up all her money.

"She's already been to the bank and drawn out her life savings, thousands of dollars, and she's on the phone, follows instructions because she's in fear she's going to go to jail," said Sheriff West.

Sheriff West says the deputy who stopped the driver happened to be in the right place at the right time.

He said the driver told the deputy that she was following the instructions they gave her, and she had the money. The deputy was not sure what the driver was talking about and took the phone, telling the driver this is a scam.

"He finally takes her telephone and gets on and says, Who is this?" said Sheriff West. "The guy says, this is Captain So-and-so. He says, 'No, it's not.' I'm Captain Gill Wilhite with the sheriff's office, and the guy hangs up."

It was a moment that prevented the loss of $9,000.

"If somebody calls you and identifies with the sheriff's office, just say, 'let me verify that', hang up, and then call the sheriff's office," said Sheriff West. "If you do that, every time I 100% guarantee you, we're going to say that's a scam. That's not us. We don't operate this way, but it just breaks my heart."

The deputy prevented the money from being stolen.

Sheriff West says this is not just a Canadian County issue; scammers are everywhere.