Alamance deputy joins Secret Service task force to fight fraud

Detective Cutlip joined the United States Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force, giving Alamance County a direct link to federal investigators who track scams, stolen credentials and other financial crimes. The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office swore Cutlip in on Jan. 29 as a task force officer, a step aimed at stopping fraud before money leaves Burlington, Graham, Mebane, Elon or Haw River accounts.

Many of the schemes hitting residents do not stay local. A caller can pose as a government worker, a bank representative, a utility employee or a relative in distress, then push a victim toward gift cards, wire transfers, digital wallets or bank accounts that can be drained in minutes. By the time a victim realizes what happened, the money is often gone.

The Secret Service’s Financial Investigations work covers financial crimes and related fraud schemes, and the agency announced the Cyber Fraud Task Force in July 2020 to bring electronic crimes and financial crimes investigators into one nationwide network. The model has also been used in Georgia, Mississippi and New England.

Alamance County has already seen the damage fraud can cause. Local law enforcement warned residents about a “get out of jail” scam, and other warnings involved people pretending to be deputies and demanding money to avoid arrest. Alamance-Burlington Schools also lost $300,000 in a phishing scam, although insurance covered the loss.

The local-federal partnership gives deputies and federal agents a better shot at spotting repeat actors, organized schemes and the same phone numbers or payment routes showing up in separate complaints. It also gives residents a faster path to report suspicious requests before a scammer can move on to the next target.

On March 6, 2026, the White House established the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and national anti-fraud efforts this year have emphasized coordination between federal and state authorities.