Ellis County Sheriff

The Ellis County Sheriff’s office has fielded multiple reports of a caller with a 785-202-xxxx or 785-205-XXXX phone number who fictitiously portrays himself as a Deputy with the Ellis County Sheriff’s office.

According to Detective Brad Ricke, the scammer leaves a message or tells the call recipient they either failed to appear in Ellis County District Court or a citation has been issued for them. The scammer refers to himself as a Deputy Mark Richardson with the callback phone number of 785-202-XXXX or 785-205-XXXX. “To our knowledge, the scammer has yet to request a money transfer from the call recipient;  rather, he  enjoys intentionally intimidating the call recipient by impersonating a law enforcement officer,” Ricke said in a news release Tuesday afternoon.

“We do not have a Deputy Mark Richardson working for our office. Our main Ellis County Sheriff office telephone number remains  (785) 625-1040.  If you are contacted by any of our staff and are unsure whether the call is legitimate, request to call us back at our main office number, (785) 625-1040.

“If you receive a call from 785-202-xxxx, 785-205-xxxx, or a Deputy Richardson, do not respond, simply hang up on the scammer and report the incident to your local law enforcement agency,” Ricke advised.

“We are working towards resolving these unsolicited calls through normal investigative procedure no matter how long it takes.”