The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office says it has received reports of residents receiving phone calls from people claiming to represent the Sheriff’s Office. In some cases, the scammers are even using the names of actual Sheriff’s Office employees or utilizing a spoofing system to have the Sheriff’s Office phone number appear on Caller ID. If you receive a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office, and they ask you to do anything such as provide your personal information or pay a fine over the phone, the Sheriff’s Office says to immediately advise them that you will call them right back, hang up, and call the Hood River County Dispatch non-emergency line at 541-386-2711. If there is a Sheriff’s Office employee who is actually trying to contact you for a legitimate reason, they will re-connect you with that employee. You should never provide any kind of payment over the phone to anyone who calls you up out of the blue, no matter how legitimate it may sound.