Letia Hammons

Limestone County authorities are issuing warnings about telephone scams after arresting two Huntsville women who tried to steal $10,000 from a Limestone woman.

Deputy Stephen Young, public information officer for the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, said Thursday recent cases of fraud and exploitation “highlight the need for vigilance by residents who receive phone calls claiming they have warrants, unpaid taxes, or other financial obligations.”

Young said a sheriff’s investigator who recently arrested two Huntsville women on charges of fraud and exploitation offered this advice for residents: “Just hang up on them,” said Caleb Durden, who has been working several cases of this nature over the last few months. “Contact the agency or organization they claim to represent if you are concerned, but those agencies generally do not call and tell you to pay them money.”

Bold scam attempt

In one of the cases, Young said, Durden arrested two Huntsville women Oct. 11, who were working with a state inmate in Bibb Correctional Facility to scam a Limestone County resident. The victim, whose son had died, had received a death benefit payment for $10,000 from a life insurance company. Somehow, Bibb Correctional Facility inmate Ronnie Rodriguez Coleman, 35, discovered record of the payment and called the victim using a “256” area code phone number. Coleman claimed to be “Chad Blakely, a nephew of Sheriff Mike Blakely,” and said the company had mistakenly deposited $20,000 in her bank account and needed $10,000 of the money back. On Oct. 7, Coleman called the victim again and said that two women would come to her house, wearing name badges, to collect the overpayment. Soon afterward, Constance Hammond and Letia Hammons, both from Huntsville, showed up at the victim’s residence. The women asked the victim to follow them to a local check cashing store, which she did. The victim had written a check for $7,500 to Constance Hammond, but the store manager made copies of the check and Hammond’s ID and refused to cash the check. The women then led the victim to the Athens Walmart to attempt to cash the check, again without success. The two women left.

Coleman then called the victim again and told her to go to the Madison Walmart and purchase four prepaid cell phones and 10 prepaid phone cards. He stayed on the line with her while she did as requested. When she attempted to pay for the items, which totaled $2583.17, the cashier refused the purchase. Coleman said he would come meet her at her home bank on Oct. 10. The victim’s daughter received a call on Oct. 8 from the same number, but when the daughter advised the male caller that an investigator was on scene, he hung up.

Durden found the two women and interviewed them. He discovered that they had allegedly gotten many “green dot cards” for inmate Coleman, who had set up the scam. Durden also arranged to interview Coleman at Bibb Correctional, who admitted to conducting the scam once Durden played him a recording of one of the calls.

Coleman told him there were several other people in prison who run similar “skits,” a slang term for these scams.

Sheriff Mike Blakely said residents should take the following advice when it comes to telephone calls.

“Any time you receive a call that you aren’t 100 percent sure is valid, contact your local law enforcement. I receive many complaints every month from residents who received such calls, and almost every one of them is easily recognizable as a scam. It’s a lot easier for us to be able to tell you in advance that someone is attempting to scam you, than it is to spend many investigative hours and resources to track down scammers and try to recover money someone has sent to them.”

Women jailed

As for the alleged scammers, Durden arrested two women.

Constance Sierra Hammond, 30, of 3806 Crane Drive, Huntsville, and Letia DeSalle Hammons, 30, of 2210 Harris Road, Huntsville, are charged with first-degree attempted financial exploitation of the elderly and criminal impersonation. They remain in the Limestone County Jail with bail set at $3,250 each.

What to watch for

Young said the Sheriff’s Office also offers the following tips to residents to guard against scammers:

• Scammers often have access to financial and personal information about you that you may not think is publicly available. They access records and get as much information as they can to appear legitimate;

• Scammers may have or attempt to use local credentials, even though they are often not actually local. For example, it is easy to get assigned a phone number with a local area code using voice-over IP online;

• Scammers frequently use names or information of mutually known people to establish credibility;

• Scammers often try to get victims to purchase “green dot cards,” prepaid cards or other difficult-to-trace methods of transferring money. This is an instant red flag, as legitimate agencies and organizations will never request to be paid this way.