Maricopa officials urge Sun City residents to hang up, verify and never pay with gift cards or crypto

Sheriff Jerry Sheridan, Maricopa County's top law-enforcement official, joined County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's financial-crimes unit at a Sun City community forum to warn residents about phone, text and AI-enabled scams targeting older adults.

The county officials said scams often rely on urgency or fear to prompt quick payments and identified common schemes and safeguards. "If you don't recognize the number calling you, hang up," Sheridan said, adding that scammers use increasingly realistic tactics, including synthetic voices produced with artificial intelligence. "If you don't recognize it, you're not expecting it — hang up. Delete the text. Don't even open it."

Mitchell, the Maricopa County Attorney, told the audience that scammers prey on people of all ages but often target older adults because attackers exploit familiarity gaps with technology and social isolation. "Victims don't just lose money, they lose peace of mind," Mitchell said. She urged anyone who has been targeted to report the incident so prosecutors and law enforcement can identify trends and pursue cases when possible. Mitchell summarized five common red flags: unexpected requests for personal information; offers that are too good to be true; pressure to act immediately; requests to pay with wire transfers, cryptocurrency or prepaid gift cards; and suspicious contact details that do not match official information.

Detective Mark Demone of the MCSO financial-crimes unit described the "big four" payment methods criminals demand: gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency and use of couriers to collect cash or valuables. "If it ends with someone asking for, demanding, or advising you to withdraw your money from the bank, it's a scam," Demone said. He and other speakers urged residents never to follow payment instructions given by an unsolicited caller and to verify requests by contacting the organization directly using contact information from official websites.

Captain Joel Campa presented local data showing that fraud calls in Sun City fell from 140 in 2023 to 125 in 2024 and that fraud reports taken for investigation dropped from 96 to 74. He cautioned that lower call counts can reflect underreporting and noted that reported monetary losses for the year to date approached $3 million, with investment scams accounting for nearly $1 million in reported loss. Campa said most fraud incidents in Sun City occur between about 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., when many residents are at home and likely to answer calls.

Officials repeatedly urged simple, practical steps: hang up on unsolicited calls, do not provide passwords or PINs, do not comply with requests for payment via gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency or courier pick-ups, and confirm suspicious requests by calling known numbers for banks or agencies. Demone recommended blocking unknown numbers and consulting a trusted friend or family member before acting on an urgent request. "Slow down, take a breath," he said.

MCSO posted local guidance and the department's most common current scams at mcs0.org/fraudsandscams and asked residents to report suspected fraud to increase investigators' visibility into patterns that cross county and international jurisdictions.

Ending: Officials said education and reporting, not just enforcement, are the best tools to reduce victimization. They encouraged attendees to share the guidance with neighbors and family members and to use county and SHOA information tables at the event to follow up on specific questions.