BATON ROUGE — John* and Ann* don’t know each other, but they recently traveled a similar path: a loved one in jail, a call offering help, and a scammer on the other end. But that’s where the similarities end, because one of them lost hundreds of dollars, and the other called for advice.
The calls
John received a call from a restricted number. The caller, whose name he doesn’t remember, said they knew his loved one was in jail, and they were calling from On Time Bail Bonds in Baton Rouge. On Time Bail Bonds is a legitimate company that the unnamed scammer said he worked for, but apparently did not. Under the pretense of being a bondsman, the scammer told John they could get his loved one out of jail, and he wouldn’t have to go to the jail to pick them up.
“I was like, ‘That sounds wonderful. Let’s do that,'” John said. “And then came payment options. They attempted a Zelle payment, but it fell flat. Zelle flagged it as a fraudulent. There were three Zelle attempts to three different names.” There was an alleged CashApp attempt after that, which also didn’t go through.
Ann’s call came from a man who said his name was Sergeant Stephen Brown. He said he knew she had a relative who was in jail, and they were processing them out. In order to do that, Brown told Ann she needed to purchase an ankle monitor.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know anything about that. I haven’t heard anything,'” Ann said. “So he says, ‘Let me explain the terms of it.’ He’s telling me about it and they have to wear this bracelet until they go to court. Then when they go to court, they’re going to take it off and you’re going to get a complete refund.”
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Then, Brown started talking about the price and payment. “$989.89. He said, ‘We don’t take credit cards. We take PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo,'” she explained. “I didn’t know any better. So I’m like, ‘I’m going to pay the guy because I want my loved one to be processed out of there.'”
Brown reportedly gave Ann a woman’s name to use for PayPal, but it didn’t go through because PayPal allegedly flagged it as a scam.
This is where John and Ann’s stories take very different turns.
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Successful scam
When the Zelle and Cash App attempts didn’t go through, John’s scammer reportedly asked if he could go to a CoinFlip kiosk, which is essentially a Bitcoin ATM, and they would send John a QR code to use.
“For some reason in my brain, the flags weren’t flying, and the alarms weren’t going off,” John said. “So I proceeded to a place not very far from my house, stuck money in, scanned the QR code, and entered some dollars in. They said ‘Okay, you’re good to go.'”
John sent the person $760. But it didn’t end there. And that’s when the alarms started going off.
“Then another phone call comes in a few minutes later, saying, ‘Oh, hey, this is such and such at the county jail. The judge has issued a ruling, and we got to get a tracking ankle bracelet put on,'” John recalled. “Wow. Right then and there I was like, ‘They got me.’ They got me right at county jail.”
John said the caller using the term ‘county jail’ was a giveaway, because Louisiana has parishes.
“I said, ‘Oh man, you really should have stopped when you were ahead.’ He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I asked him to give me the address of the jail and took him a second. I heard him fumbling, and he said ‘I’ll have to call you right back.'”
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Call for help
When Ann’s first PayPal payment didn’t go through, Brown reportedly gave her a different woman’s name to try.
“So, I said, ‘Well, this is a girl. She’s got a bunny ears and glasses filter.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, that’s her daughter. That’s our financial advisor.’ And I said, ‘I’m at work, I have to get off the phone right now. Let me get your number and I’m going to call you back.'”
Ann hung up and immediately called Another Chance Bail Bonds for some guidance. She spoke with Meg David, who told her not to pay, and it was a scam. “I was like, ‘No Ma’am, don’t do that. Do not pay it,'” David told UWK. “Do not pay these people. It’s a scam.”
Ann gave David all of the information she had from the call, and David decided to pick up the phone and see what the scammer had to say herself.
“I asked him, ‘Who said this person had to have an ankle monitor?’,” David explained. “He told me Judge Balfour had ordered that. I told him Judge Balfour was dead, which we all know he’s not, but he’s a civil judge now, so he did not order that. So, I knew that was a lie.”
David said the scammer kept insisting it was going to cost more if the transaction didn’t go through him.
“He didn’t realize that I was the bondsman, nor did he realize that I had already posted that bond a few hours before this whole conversation,” David said. “So in a nutshell, I told him not to harass Ann and not to call her again.”
Ann didn’t send the scammer any money, and none of her attempted payments went through.
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International Suspect
John was told the ankle monitor he needed to purchase would be an additional $632.
“I was angry. I called the bail bonds place,” John said. They told him to contact the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office. “They dispatched a couple of very helpful deputies.” John gave the deputies screenshots and everything he had from the calls, and he was given a case and file number.
John said LPSO worked with state police and FBI, and they were able to track down the scammer. “They tracked his account. They got his name, they got his ID. He had a lot of money in this particular account, but it got transferred,” John said. “They were able to recover some, and I might get a check.”
Authorities told John the suspect lives in Lagos, Nigeria. “They are supposedly issuing an arrest warrant if Lagos plays ball, via an international warrant, and they’ll be able to pick him up.”
When UWK asked the FBI about the matter, officials responded that the agency does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.
John credits the success of the case to the law enforcement officers he worked with, especially LPSO Detective Travis Pitman, who has recently earned a Certified Fraud Examiner Credential and won the Louisiana Bankers Association Distinguished Service Award for his recovery of over one million dollars in stolen funds for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
Protecting the public
Another Chance Bail Bonds said there are a number of different scams going around, but Ann’s case is the first they’ve seen involving an ankle monitor.
When it comes to protecting yourself against this type of scam, experts say to make sure you’re always communicating with reputable, licensed companies. They say to get recommendations from friends and family, and check the Better Business Bureau. You should also be mindful of companies that reach out to you, and never send money to unknown sources.
Final takeaways
These scammers know exactly when to strike: in moments of weakness, when defenses are down.
“You’re already traumatized by everything that’s going on, and then they’re trying to kind of get you again,” Ann said. “You’re not thinking clearly when you’re in that situation and they’re preying upon that. And there’s no telling how many people they get.”
“A lot of times you’re in a beleaguered situation,” said John. “This is a very serious situation. People’s livelihoods are at stake.”
If you think you are on the receiving end of a scam, the FBI says to report suspicious activity to IC3.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
*The names ‘John’ and ‘Ann’ have been changed to protect their identities. This decision was made by the UWK editorial team to ensure their privacy.
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