Scammers pretend to be Vancouver police

Scammers are using the Vancouver Police Department’s phone number to trick people into thinking they’re getting phone calls from the police. They then try to solicit personal information to levy fake fines, a spokeswoman said.

Kim Kapp said the Vancouver police have received multiple calls this week from people asking about paying fines supposedly owed to the department, but they’ve all been victims of caller ID spoofing.

With caller ID spoofing, scammers use another phone number, usually one belonging to a legitimate caller, to trick a phone’s caller ID into thinking the phone call is from an official source, she said.

“Someone is using our phone number as a spoof number to say, ‘Yeah you have overdue fines. Can I get your credit card information?’ ” Kapp said. “We don’t collect fines at all. The courts do that.”

She said the department wants to remind people to avoid providing personal or financial information over the phone, despite what a phone’s caller ID might say.

Many people have correctly hung up and called the police, she said, adding the department has still seen plenty of instances of people who have been tricked into handing over sensitive information.

“It’s a common scam, but unfortunately, we do get people who fall for these things.”

In the event of a suspected spoof call, the Federal Communications Commission recommends people hang up and call the number on their latest bill, in the phone book or online to check if that company or agency really needs to talk.