HURRICANE — At least one Hurricane resident was recently targeted by a phone scam in which the caller claimed to be a police officer looking for money to clear an arrest warrant. Police are cautioning residents to be mindful of such scammers.
A man reported the scam to Hurricane Police Department describing a call from someone impersonating an officer saying the man missed jury duty and had a warrant issued for his arrest as a result.
The caller tried to get the man’s bank account info over the phone, saying he needed to pay money to clear the warrant.
“Luckily they were not a victim of the scam and caught on to what was going on,” Hurricane Police Department spokesperson Tiffany Mower told St. George News.
In a news release, the police department reminds people that real police officers do not collect money for warrants or fines and should never call asking for money.
“At this point in time, we don’t know how widespread it is,” Mower said, “but we’re trying to get in front of it and get the information out to people so they don’t become victims of it.”
While this is so far the only incident of this particular scam it is aware of, the police department is encouraging anyone receiving similar phone calls to contact authorities.
“Anytime that people feel that they’ve been defrauded or get something suspicious,” Mower said, “of course we want people to contact us and make a report so that we can help in any way we can.”
Tips or reports can be made to the Hurricane Police Department’s nonemergency dispatch line at 435-627-4999.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.
I’d just laugh at them and tell me to come and get me.
It’s sad, but the best way to tell if it’s a scam or for real: if it’s for real we wont understand anything they are saying. Scammers make it sound plausible and real authorities might not understand the laws enough to explain them to us.
I would add. It’s easy for people to get the last four numbers of your social security or credit card numbers, routing numbers to your accounts and information that seems like it should be personal. Just because someone has information like that doesn’t mean you should give them more.