BEATRICE, Neb. - It’s becoming more of a regular, unfortunate occurrence.

You’re scrolling your phone as a series of suspicious text messages or phone calls come in. If you’re not careful, it can lead to quite a dwindling of your bank account. That’s why departments like the Gage County Sheriff’s Office are working to combat the high number of scam calls in southeast Nebraska.

“They kind of go in cycles and they do what they know is effective and they keep doing them because someone falls for them, unfortunately”

Sgt. Tim Hanson  investigates scams, many of which involve telecommunication fraud. Scammers impersonate credit card companies, toll services, relatives, and celebrities.

Recently, a Bennett man lost $600 to someone posing as Luke Bryan, and a rural Gage County woman reported to the sheriff’s office a scam from a fake “Walmart Fraud Department” over a $1,300 charge.

Often, scams are just a click away.

“The way the software works, it’s so sophisticated, that when you click on something, it comes back to that scammers number,” Hanson said. “So you’re then calling them, they’ll ask for your bank information or access to your computer… And the worse part is, we as victims give it to them.”

Investigating scams is difficult as scammers are often states and even countries away, but the sheriff’s office currently has deputies being trained to combat Cryptocurrency fraud.

“That is a relatively new way to scam people,” Hanson said. “It allegedly gets them to purchase something, allegedly Cryptocurrency, and they can go through a Crypto bank.”

While scams can be hidden, Hanson notes one major trend to watch for.

“Another big red flag is secrecy or urgency,” Hanson said. “They’ll tell these people they can’t tell anyone or if they hang up they’ll be arrested right away… Nothing’s ever that urgent. If you’re going to be arrested right away, there’s a deputy standing right there beside you.”

Hanson says the best thing to do if you've been involved in a scam or are at all suspicious is to report them to local law enforcement.