Attorney General Mike DeWine says impostors are calling unsuspecting Ohio consumers and using high pressure tactics to get them to send money.

“Caller claims to be from our office, demands that the consumer pay hundreds of dollars he or she supposedly owes for a pay day alone and insists the consumer must use a prepaid money card to satisfy the debt or risk being arrested or taken to court,” DeWine says. “This is just totally outrageous.”

In some cases, DeWine says, the consumers don’t owe any money at all yet he has examples where they fallen for the scam and sent money to the con artist. The A.G. says his office is indeed the official debt collector for money owed to government agencies, but he adds, his staffers would never try to collect money owed to private companies and they’d never use threats.