A scam artist claiming to be with the Vancouver Police Department called a local couple and tried to get them to divulge personal information.
The number the scam artist called from was “spoofed,” which means that on the couple’s caller ID, the call appeared to actually be coming from the local police agency. The caller said that an attorney from the criminal justice department in Albany, N.Y., told him the couple owed money. He asked them for personal information, such as the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
“It was fairly convincing,” said Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp.
The couple didn’t give the caller any information. Instead, they called the actual Vancouver Police Department and reported what happened, Kapp said. They also called the criminal justice department in New York and were told that similar scams had happened at other cities around the country.
Kapp said that if people are wary of a call they get, they can hang up and directly dial the agency the caller is purporting to represent. Spoofing numbers is one of the newer tricks used by scam artists to make it appear as though they’re from legitimate organizations.
