As the holiday season approaches, phone scammers have started working overtime and extending their reach in an effort to fraudulently obtain money from citizens. These phone bandits continuously make calls identifying themselves as members of the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office, but now they’re taking their schemes outside of Hamblen County. According to Sheriff Chad Mullins, within the last couple of weeks a resident of Knox County and a resident of Loudon County have fallen victim to scammers who identified themselves as lieutenants with the HCSO. One victim lost $17,000 and one lost $12,000. “As I’ve said numerous times since taking office in 2022, no one associated with the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office will ever contact a citizen and ask for any type of payment over the phone,

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