Southborough Police posted a warning on on their Facebook page.
Apparently, someone has used “Caller ID/Phone Spoofing” to fake at least one scam call from Southborough Police, even showing their phone number:
Urgent! PLEASE READ!
We are currently investigating a complaint from one of our residents, who stated that they had just received a scam phone call from the Southborough Police Department’s Business Number ((508) 485-2147). The resident stated that the scam phone call came up on their caller ID as the business number of the Southborough Police Department. The resident reported that the suspect caller (who spoke with an accent), stated that they were calling from the IRS, and that they had a warrant for the resident’s arrest. The scammer never asked for personal information, but the resident relayed that it appeared as though they were waiting for him to offer that information (through this scare tactic).
This incident is an example of a criminal practice called “Caller ID/Phone Spoofing”. Information on what it is, and what you can do to protect yourself and loved ones, can be found here:
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/caller-id-and-spoofingAgain, the scam works by the suspect being allowed to enter ANY phone number as the caller, so that the fake number shows up on the victim’s caller ID. The recipient believes that they are speaking to that agency, and may be tricked into offering up personal information. Please contact the Southborough Police Department if you have received a similar phone call.
Please “like” and “share” this post so that we can avoid future victims of this phone scam. Thank you.
My phone was very recently targeted for a police scam, but without the Caller ID spoofing. That caller claimed to be from state police and threatened that a warrant was out for arrest on a member of my family.
It was clearly phony to me. But I got the impression they were targeting immigrants who may be less familiar with police and legal procedures. I would guess pretending to be from the police is just one more tactic for those “phishing” for identity fraud data.
So careful to be certain who you are talking to before sharing information!
Thanks for pointing this out! I read about caller ID spoofing from https://www.callercenter.com/articles/calleridspoofing.html and it was mentioned that some telephone companies provide the tool for callers to fake their phone number that appears on the recipient’s caller ID. Why is that even allowed???