Today, we received a report that a Penn Township resident received a phone call from a male reporting that they were a police officer. During the call, the male told the resident they had a warrant out for their arrest and needed to immediately wire money so they wouldn’t be arrested the following day. The resident reported that the phone number on their call ID actually came back to a legitimate police department in York County. After an investigation, it was learned that no actual police officer called the resident. It was concluded that the male caller spoofed his phone number and lied about being a police officer to defraud the victim out of money.

Caller ID spoofing is a technique where a caller falsifies the information transmitted to the recipient's caller ID display to disguise their identity. This can be used for legitimate reasons, such as protecting privacy, but it is often associated with scams where the caller impersonates a trusted individual or organization to deceive the recipient. While spoofing is legal for privacy protection, using it with malicious intent is illegal. To avoid falling victim to spoofed calls, it's important to be cautious and verify the identity of unknown callers.

Generally speaking, spoofing is used to gain the trust of a victim by using a familiar phone number even thought it’s fake. Spoofing is commonly used by criminals.

We wanted to make the public aware that members of our police department will never call you asking for money to get out of an arrest warrant. To see the latest crime trends and information about major arrests, follow us on social media.

Crime Watch: https://york.crimewatchpa.com/penntwppd

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