AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Scammers are increasingly posing as law enforcement agencies or a tollway agency trying to collect overdue money.

It’s getting to be such a problem that the FBI is getting involved in Georgia, and Grovetown’s police chief is issuing a warning.

The Grovetown Police Department has said they are getting reports of scammers calling people and pretending to be the police.

“No law enforcement agency is going to call you over the phone and say pay me X amount of dollars over the phone,” says Grovetown Police Chief Jamey Kitchens.

One variation Kitchens warns about is that scammers try to convince people to get prepaid credit cards or gift cards and read out the activation codes over the phone.

“What they do to sell this to some elderly folks is say, ‘Well we know you’re probably not comfortable giving your information over the phone so here’s a way that you can do it,’” Kitchens said.

Officials emphasize that no law enforcement agency will ask for money over the phone.

Some scammers don’t call but send text messages.

The FBI is investigating the rise in a scam text being sent out to Georgians saying they owe money for their Peach Pass.

“They were seeing an uptick in smishing, phishing, and all kinds of scams involving emails, as well as well as text messages,” said Ericka Bayonne with the Georgia Road & Tollway Authority.

The scam has been going around since April of 2024 but there’s been an uptick in the past week.

“The FBI had mentioned that they had received over 20,000, I think, complaints,” said Bayonne said.

Peach Pass only sends letters for bill reminders.

“It’s disappointing that people would take advantage of our customers and we don’t like it and so we’re going to do whatever we need to do to help with our customers to stay protected,” Bayonne said.

Copyright 2025 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.