STEUBENVILLE — Authorities are warning county residents to be wary of scammers posing as police officers “demanding money in lieu of arrest.”

On Tuesday, a name-dropping scammer with an American accent tried to part a Toronto woman from her money, identifying himself as Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Capt. Gary Slates and telling her if she didn’t pay a fine, she would be arrested.

“…No legitimate law enforcement officer will demand payment over the phone as an alternative to arrest,” the real Capt. Gary Slates said in his report.

A retired sheriff’s deputy who worked with the real Slates said the scam was brought to his attention by an acquaintance who worked with the victim. He said he had her call the scammer and put her phone on speaker so he could verify to her satisfaction that she wasn’t talking to a real police officer.

That phone call lasted about 20 minutes. He said at one point the scammer had old the victim he “needed to consult a supervisor, “so he had her call back and got a voice mail stating she’d reached the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The scammer called her back later and “repeated (his) demand for payment in lieu of arrest.

Slates — the real deputy — said the victim “was visibly shaken and emotionally distressed” because she scammer referred to her by name “and appeared to have extensive personal information about her.” The real Capt. Slates explained to her information that much of the information the scammer had he’d likely sourced from “publicly accessible websites … that provide significant data for free, with even more available through paid subscriptions.”