Red light cameras part of new scam in Fort Bend County

FORT BEND COUNTY (KTRK) -- A scam warning from Fort Bend County. Someone is calling people posing as officers and threatening jail time.

The scammers tell victims they got caught on camera running a red light and to make things worse, the caller says the driver missed a court date. The caller then says jail time awaits if the driver does not pay up and some people are falling for it.

Red light cameras are still around, but Greg Nunn does not remember running through one. Still, when he got a call from someone claiming to be with the Ft. Bend County Sheriff's Office warrants division it made him wonder.

"And that I had failed to appear before the court for that traffic ticket and did I know about it and did I receive a summons and the answer was no," said Nunn.

Nunn adds the caller wanted him to pay the $800 in fines through an online gift card website. Nunn says that sounded fishy so he started asking questions.

"Which intersection? And he could not tell me. He said he did not have that information. So I said can you tell me which court I missed? You know who is the judge?" said Nunn.

Nunn adds the caller could not answer any of his questions so he did not pay any money. Instead he called the Fort Bend County Sheriff's office and learned the whole thing was a scam.

"The red light one is kind of a new one,' said Fort Bend County Detective Brian Dasher.

Dasher adds the county has been getting a host of calls from concerned citizens wondering if they owe money for not paying a red light camera ticket.

The answer is no, but some people have fallen for the scam before trying to find out the truth.

"We are getting some sadly where they have loaded money on to a card and that money is gone, these people are out there $500, $1,000," said Nunn.

Obviously no law enforcement officer is ever going to ask you to pay a fine using a gift card, so keep that in mind. Unlike other scams, detectives do have leads in this one so they may be able track down the person posing as a deputy.