Greenfield Police Report Recent Rise in Phone Scams

GREENFIELD, Ind. — The Greenfield Police Department said they’ve received a handful of complaints from residents recently who say they’ve been getting calls from people pretending to be police officers or city officials in order to get money.

In a release from the department, they say the caller ID that shows up on the victim’s phone shows as “City of Greenfield.” Turns out, it’s not the city calling.

Deputy Chief Charles McMichael said they’ve had quite a few calls in the just the past few days where scammers are pretending to be him or other police officers with the department. Some of the calls sound serious.

“The scammers are basically trying to intimidate people to pay them money over the phone,” Chief McMichael said. “They’re telling them they have outstanding parking tickets and traffic violations.

One of the calls that someone received this week was of a person pretending to be a Greenfield officer who told the victim that they had unpaid citations and that they were being tracked. According to McMichael, that person ended up paying the scammer a few hundred dollars over the phone.

“They were told that they were tracking their cell phone and that if they didn’t pay the money, they were going to stop them, make a big public scene and take them to jail,” said McMichael.

There have been other instances where scammers have attempted to obtain information relating to a person’s bank account in order to steal money from their account.

It’s important to note that you cannot avoid going to jail by paying money over the phone. You also cannot pay unpaid citations over the phone.

“No police department is going to call and tell you that you can get out of jail if you pay x amount of money over the phone,” he said. “That’s never going to happen.”

The ones that are more prone to fall for these scams are older folks. Chief McMichael said it’s important that family members talk to each other and make sure no one is giving out their personal information or trying to send money over the phone, especially if the person on the other end of the phone is unknown.

Chief McMichael said those who receive a phone call from someone claiming to be a police officer from the Greenfield Police Department, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, McCordsville Police Department, Fortville Police Department, Shirley Police Department, Wilkinson Police Department, New Palestine Police Department or the Cumberland Police Department and they don’t believe them, should hang up and call the Hancock County 911 Center at 317-477-4400. A dispatcher will be able to confirm if the officer is working at that moment and actually trying to call.

Greenfield Police Report Recent Rise in Phone Scams  was originally published on wibc.com