The Dallas Police Department Financial Investigations Unit wants to bring awareness to the public regarding a phone call scam involving perpetrators purporting themselves to be legitimate Dallas Police Officers by using their title and name.
According to the Dallas PD, the perpetrators will call from a variety of different phone numbers and in some cases, they will spoof their phone number with a legitimate Dallas Police phone number so that it appears to the victim they are receiving a legitimate phone call from The Dallas Police Department.
Once the perpetrator has made contact with the victim, they will inform the victim they are wanted for an arrest warrant and the warrant can only be dismissed with the purchase of gift cards or the transfer of money. The perpetrator informs the victim that if they provide the numbers associated with the gift cards or transfer money the warrant will be dismissed.
A statement released by the Dallas PD said, "The Dallas Police Department will never call an individual and ask or demand a financial payment of any kind."
The police department wants citizens to follow these two steps should they receive a scam call:
- Report the incident to www.IC3.gov (FBI-Internet Crime Complaint Center)
- Block the phone number from future calls.
Citizens can report these incidents to the FBI by way of the www.IC3.gov website mentioned above.
