Glamorous influencer tearfully reveals how she fell victim to predatory police scam: ‘He sounded so legitimate’

A glamorous influencer has tearfully revealed how she was nearly scammed out of thousands of dollars by scammers posing as police officers.

Isabelle Lux, a 33 year old expectant mother from Palm BeachFlorida, received a call from the local sheriff on Friday.

The man on the other end of the line practically forced her to transfer money, threatening her with a 72-hour jail sentence if she didn’t cooperate.

Now she has told DailyMail.com that frightening size of the scam, to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I consider myself someone who is well informed about these things and educated enough not to be misled by anything,” she said.

“But the way this person was trained to weave a story, it just felt so real.”

The number itself was the real number for her local sheriff’s department. “It was the first thing I checked,” she said.

“He gave me his name, a badge number. He had all my information.”

The fake cop told Isabelle that she had failed to show up for jury duty and that there was a warrant out for her arrest.

When the con artist found out she was pregnant—and had a legitimate excuse to avoid appearing in front of a jury—he changed his mind and tried to be understanding of her situation.

“He just took every word I said and recorded it. He used my own words against me,” she said.

The con artist assured her that the police did not want her to spend three nights in jail, which he said was the standard punishment for failing to appear for a jury.

Instead, he proposed another solution: paying a fine.

“It was a psychological tactic that worked on me and made me feel very confused. He said we could either put you in jail or you could pay the fines. He basically said they didn’t want to put me in jail because it wouldn’t be good for me and my baby. I thought, ‘Well, thank you for thinking of my baby,'” Isabelle said.

I thought that [the fine] sounded much more reasonable.’

Isabelle said she always found it “ridiculous” when she heard how other people had fallen for a scam, but by the time the fake agent had delivered the punch line, she was already emotional and her judgment was “clouded” by stress.

“To put this interaction into context – I was never contacted by the police. Now I know that’s not how they communicate, they wouldn’t call,” she said.

“But I have no experience with the police or the legal system at all. And this man sounded very well educated, he sounded clear, it all sounded very legitimate.”

Isabelle’s husband arrived home just in time and, sensing a problem, called the local sheriff from his own phone.

The couple was immediately told that they did not have to pay anything and that the police were not looking for Isabelle.

They said they knew scammers had found a way to copy their phone numbers in an attempt to scare ordinary Americans into handing over money.

“They said this is so widespread that they hear about it every day,” Isabelle said.

“It’s scary… We’ve been very lucky.”

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans reported a total loss of $10 billion to fraudsters in 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission has issued a warning about phone number spoofing in particular, saying that scammers “often use ‘neighbor spoofing,’ where an incoming call appears to come from a local number, or spoof a number from a business or government agency that you may already know and trust.”

‘If you answer, they will attempt to steal your money or valuable personal information using scam scripts, which can then be used for fraudulent activities.’

Isabelle said she hopes that by sharing her own experiences, others will become more vigilant about the dangers.

“I would say these people are very well educated, at least in the area of ​​scams,” she said.

‘The person I was speaking to had clear language and a clear boundary, but he was moving so quickly that I couldn’t really check the facts.

“Be aware of how widespread phone fraud is, and that number masking is real. Not enough people know this – I certainly don’t.”