A phony “Sergeant” is calling Ithaca-area stores and tricking employees into revealing how much cash is in their registers, according to 14850.com. The Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office says the scammer uses a spoofed phone number and pretends there’s a counterfeit $100 bill alert.
Then the caller walks the employee through opening the till, supposedly to “verify” cash amounts.
The Sheriff’s Office warns this is a scam—real law enforcement will never ask for register totals by phone.


