New phone scam targets people forced to register

  • Do not fall for phone scams
  • Registry enforcement is NOT done by phone
  • Hang up and report this fraud to law enforcement

Nebraskans Unafraid has been asked to warn the community about a new phone scam that targets people forced to register.

The scam is perpetrated by phone call.  The scammer will tell you that you failed to respond to some fictitious letter indicating that you had two days to verify registry information.  The caller then works the scam by saying you need a $750 voucher (amount might vary) to avoid going to jail. You might be told that if you go to the sheriff’s office you will be arrested.

You might be given instructions on how to obtain a voucher.

All of the scammer’s statements are lies. This is a fraud and you should not be taken in by it.

No registry enforcement is done by phone. Law enforcement will never call you and demand money.

If you get a phone call like this, simply ignore it and report it to legitimate law enforcement.

If you use a mobile phone, it’s a good idea to put trusted contacts in your contacts list and if you get a call from someone not on that list, just don’t answer it.

Here are some of our previous posts warning of phone scams:

Don’t be duped

Just hang up

Federal judge says registry can’t be applied retroactively

  • Judge criticizes state for flouting the U.S. Constitution
  • Other rulings against Tennessee law cited
  • Judge also cites Michigan ruling

Tennessee may not retroactively apply its registration law, according to a federal judge who ordered that eight people be removed from the registry.

“Tennessee officials continue to flout the Constitution’s guarantees,” U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger wrote in her ruling on December 3, 2021. “The federal district courts of this state have repeatedly concluded that the same analysis applies … to Tennessee’s own, very similar scheme and policies. Tennessee officials have continued to impose the state’s repeatedly-held-to-be-unlawful policy on other, similarly situated individuals” despite rulings, she said.

Governments are prohibited from giving more punishment for a crime that was committed previously under the Ex Post Facto of the U.S. Constitution clause, according to The Associated Press. 

Trauger also cited an April ruling where another federal judge in the Middle District of Tennessee ruled that two men should be removed from the sex offender registry. The judge determined enforcing laws created after the committed crimes were unconstitutional.

Trauger also mentioned that in 2016, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against retroactive implementation of a sex offender law in Michigan.

Read the full story here.

Proposed amendment puts travelers at risk of violence

  • Congressman wants to make life difficult for more people.
  • Amendment does nothing but harm.
  • Legal protections abroad are as suspect as they are in the U.S.

International Megan’s Law already puts American registrants traveling abroad at risk of being detained by security forces in other countries, at risk of being exposed as a registrant in countries where legal protections may be minimal.

Now the congressman responsible for IML wants to amend it to make life difficult for more people, including some Americans who live abroad.

Tucked away in the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2021 (H.R. 5150), you will find an amendment to International Megan’s Law (IML). The 2016 IML set the requirement that some passport-holders on the sex offense registry must have an indicator in their passport showing that they are registrants and that they offended against a minor.  

Current IML makes sure that the United States does what it can to throw unfounded suspicion upon its own citizens — suspicion of future crimes — as they travel to countries where that suspicion could put them in harm’s way. This amendment will make sure that Americans who live in other countries where they are not required to register will be treated with that same suspicion; it will also collect names of citizens of other countries who have been convicted of sex offenses against minors.

Like the registry itself, which treats registrants as if they are ticking time bombs destined to commit more sex crimes, IML treats all registrants convicted of offenses against minors as if they are using travel to find more victims. That imagined danger puts Americans traveling abroad at risk of discrimination and violence when their passport makes known their history of a sex offense, and puts them at risk in a country where they may not have legal protections they would have in the United States.

Read more here.