Region – Middlesex Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian and the Massachusetts State Police have issued a warning to the public about a new wave of scam calls in which perpetrators pose as law enforcement, threatening victims with arrest.
“We and our law enforcement colleagues in Acton, Lexington and Cambridge have been notified in recent days about numerous instances in which callers are fraudulently identifying themselves as members of those departments, the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office or the IRS, and are threatening victims with arrest for failure to pay fictional debts,” Koutoujian said. “In some instances the callers are managing to spoof the telephone numbers of my office or other law enforcement agencies making it appear as if the calls are coming from these departments.”
Similar cases were reported to the State Police, in which the caller claims to be from the State Police, informs the recipients that they are subjects of a warrant, and directs them to call a phony number to clear up the warrant before someone comes to arrest them.
According to the State Police warning, “the calls of which we are aware have been made by someone with a heavy foreign accent, but the public should be wary of any such calls, whether the caller has an accent or not.”
In many of these cases, and in similar cases reported across the region in the last year, callers attempt to get victims to purchase MoneyPak or GreenDot cards from pharmacies or grocery stores in order to pay the fictional debt. They indicate failure to do so will result in immediate arrest.
“No legitimate law enforcement agency will ever threaten arrest over the phone,” Koutoujian said. “Nor will they demand payment for debt over the phone.”
The State Police warning said that the source or sources of the calls remains under investigation. In addition they note, “For the record, we do not call warrant subjects in advance and ask that they call us back; rather, we tend to just show up on their doorsteps.”
Anyone who receives a call similar in nature to those referenced above is encouraged to contact their local police department. The Middlesex Sheriff’s Office asks residents to report calls to the Investigations Unit at 978-932-3220 if the caller indicates they work for the Sheriff’s Office.