LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A Las Vegas Valley man warns of a scheme where a scammer impersonates a real-life local officer and warns of a court date before an actual Nevada judge.
FOX5 has told you about numerous scams where criminals impersonate law enforcement. Matthew Kadish explains how this criminal did research to ensnare victims.
“I wanted to get the word out about it, because I think that this is a scam that a lot of people could legitimately fall for,” Kadish said.
After his wife received a message from an officer impersonator about a “legal matter,” Kadish did an online search for his name: it matched an actual officer who works in a law enforcement agency in the Las Vegas Valley.
Kadish called the officer impersonator back.
“The guy spoke with a lot of authority. He kind of sounded like a like a police officer. This guy claimed to be this Clark County Sheriff’s deputy,” Kadish said, noting the man had obtained plenty of personal information about him.
“He gave these citation numbers… he basically said that his job was to facilitate court appearances. He said that there was a bench warrant out for my arrest and the judge in the case had given me two citations: one was failure to appear for a federal jury panel and the other was contempt of court,” Kadish said.
If Kadish paid the fines in a surety bond, he could appear in court the next day in a judge’s courtroom, the scammer said. The impersonator even used the name of an existing Nevada judge.
Kadish stayed on the phone call. He told the officer impersonator that he would head straight to the local police station to clear up any outstanding fines.
“He says, ‘I was just informed by our financial department that the digital coin kiosk at our Sheriff’s Office and in our lobby is out of order. I’m going to need you to go to this other location and use their digital coin kiosk.’ This is where my alarm bells really started to ring,” Kadish said.
“I was like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing this… I’m going to have my lawyer meet me down at the station. Lock me up. I’m not paying this thing, I’m going to go down there and straightening this out,’” Kadish said.
When Kadish arrived at a local Las Vegas Metropolitan Police station, the staff members told him they had no record of any warrant; the caller was a scammer. They urged him to file a report.
LVMPD released the following statement:
MORE: Nevada State Police issues DMV scam alert warning
LVMPD recently alerted the public about a text message scam claiming a traffic fine from “Las Vegas Courts.” Police call the text a “smishing” scam and advise to not click suspicious links, share personal or financial information, or make payments via unknown sites. Always verify directly through official court websites.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
click to expand photos
Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
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