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CAMILLA, Ga. - One of the most successful phone scams these days operated out of a small, south Georgia town where the crooks get their food and shelter for free and have nothing but time on their hands.
If you received a call from someone threatening you with arrest if you don't pay up for missing jury duty or IRS tax deadlines, chances are you were talking to an inmate at Jimmy Autry State Prison near Camilla.
Prison authorities admitted they tried everything: raiding the medium security prison on a regular basis, transferring the ringleaders to other facilities, arresting civilians who help with the scam on the outside.
So this time they tried hitting Autry in the dead of night, and the FOX 5 I-Team watched the raid unfold.
Nearly 200 Georgia Department of Corrections tactical squad members fanned out through all 19 housing units at Autry, assigned to search by hand all 1676 inmates.
Inside the first housing unit the FOX 5 I-Team visited, we found the very reason investigators have come here: a pile of torn scraps of paper left on the common room floor.
"So this is the script they use to scam people?" asked FOX 5 I-Team reporter Randy Travis.
"Yes," replied Georgia Department of Corrections Special Investigations chief Ricky Myrick, holding up a piece of the script. "And when they saw us coming in they tried to shred it on us. But you can see they talk about having a warrant issued today."
A warrant for your arrest unless you pay up now because you either missed jury duty or owe back taxes. Investigators said inmates at Autry have been making those fake calls for years.
Martin Doss got one. The Macon contractor thought about hanging up, but he said a part of him worried he might have overlooked a notice from the government.
"The whole time you're wrestling in your mind, this has to be a scam," Doss explained. "But as I said, it was so convincing."
But the Autry scam will not work without a smuggled cell phone. Squad members found 28 phones at Autry that night, including at least one hidden underneath a cell toilet.
"What you can do with a smart phone is access the Internet," warned Myrick. "And the next thing you do using the Internet is research the area of the victims you intend to target."
Remember that shredded script authorities found? They carefully pieced it back together.
The script used the misspelled names of a real DeKalb judge, Shawn Lagrua, and a real Fulton clerk of court Tina Robinson.
And with an app on their phone the crooks can spoof their number to make it look as if it's coming from any police department.
"They target individuals and utilize the sheriff's name, maybe his deputies, his court officials," Myrick explained. "So the people feel that it's a legitimate call. They recognize these names; they recognize the callback numbers they're given."
Macon-Bibb County investigator Jack Cleveland said right now Autry inmates are using a local sergeants' name to threaten Bibb County residents into paying up.
Cleveland showed us some of the prepaid cards those victims bought to transfer the money -- at least $17,000 worth so far.
"This really ticks me off that these criminals are in PRISON, not just in jail but in prison serving lengthy sentences and still committing crimes and making serious money," stressed Cleveland.
Add Martin Doss' 200 bucks to the pile.
Randy: You were actually talking to an inmate at Autry State Prison.
Doss: Honestly, you know, it makes me feel like an idiot."
Authorities also recovered lists of possible victims. Some live as far away as Hawaii.
Investigators can't explain why Autry continued to be at the epicenter of this scam targeting people across the United States.
"That's one we haven't figured out yet," Myrick admitted. "That information is traveling from one inmate to another. And they're training each other how to do this."
On a rare nighttime raid that produced at least 50 homemade weapons, the most useful evidence could wind up being some torn scraps of paper dumped in the trash, hoping no one would notice a roadmap to easy money.
App users: Click here to watch the I-Team decipher the key to the Gang Code at Autry State Prison