October 7, 2022
Fishers, (Indiana) – This week several concerned citizens contacted the police department after they received the same telephone scam. This scam involves a suspect “spoofing” the police department telephone number and identifying themselves as an Officer or Lieutenant. The suspect accuses the victim of having an outstanding arrest warrant and instructs them to purchase “money paks” to pay their court costs.
Many of these telephone scammers instruct the victim to stay on the phone, not tell anyone of the conversation, and travel to a store and purchase gift cards or green dot cards for a certain amount. Here are a few safety tips you should follow if you are contacted by a possible telephone scammer:
Immediately hang up the phone if you do not recognize or know the caller
- Never give out personal information. If you feel the call might be legitimate, you can ask the person to mail you information
- Never provide gift card numbers to anyone over the telephone
- No legitimate company or organization requires payment via gift cards or money paks
- No law enforcement agency threatens to arrest people over the phone
- If something does not sound or feel right, hang up the phone
- You are welcome to contact your local law enforcement agency, however most of these telephone scams originate from overseas and are very difficult if not impossible to trace.