BATON ROUGE —Sometimes, a message from a scammer can be obvious, like a text with a link leading to a suspicious website. 

Kirkland Collier almost fell victim to one of these scams on Tuesday. 

Collier says he got a call from a Baton Rouge phone number, and at first, he didn’t answer. The voicemail message claimed to be from a deputy with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. 

When Collier called back, they asked why he didn’t show up for jury duty, but Collier said he wasn’t scheduled for jury duty. The caller, claiming to be a deputy, said he had two options: Pay a fee or face criminal charges. 

Following these instructions, Collier withdrew $3,500 from his bank account and followed the caller’s next set of instructions to an address that ended up being a gas station on Plank Road.

"They gave me this address to bring it to, and I'm thinking I'm going to a sheriff's office," Collier said.

When he got to the gas station, he realized it was a scam, and drove to the Baton Rouge Police Department and reported the incident. 

"I said, 'Man, I don't believe a single thing you're saying,' I'm going to the police station right now," Collier said. 

The gas station owners said they had no idea people were being guided to their business under the guise of giving a so-called deputy money. 

A media representative with Regions Bank spoke about these kinds of scams. They said anybody can be caught off guard and led to believe they owe a substantial amount of money. 

They said in some cases people are told to pull out money and spend it on Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, and send it to an unknown person. 

East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office says they're aware of the scam. 

For more information about scams and how to avoid them, click here for more information from EBRSO.