FBI warning about Telephone Scammers Impersonating Law Enforcement

The FBI is warning residents about telephone scammers impersonating law enforcement to steal money and identities of victims.  It has been recently reported that callers will fake their phone numbers so the calls appear to come from a local police department.  They will also provide information like the names of actual law enforcement officers and badge numbers.  These scammers sometimes research professional and personal information of the victim, on social media or other open-information sources, to gain trust or make their schemes more believable.  When trust is established, the scammers will attempt to collect money with prepaid debit cards or gift cards to rectify whatever situation the victims are told they are in, such as failing to report for jury duty, failure to appear as a witness to a court hearing, or other offenses.  The scammers then stay on the phone with the victim, while the victim is instructed to purchase and until the victim provides the prepaid debit card to satisfy the fine.  Although these types of scams have historically targeted the elderly, the recent iteration has primarily focused on professionals, including threatening professionals with the loss of their professional credentials in addition to identity and monetary theft.  Suspicious solicitations of this type should be reported to the police or IC3.GOV, a website maintained by the FBI.