–Reported by Lindsay Tuman
Phones are ringing off the hook at the Athens Clarke County Police Department. A new scammer calls people pretending to be, none other than a member of the police department. So far five people have called in reporting this guy, but we aren’t sure how many other people he’s called. Reporter Lindsay Tuman looked into what the police are doing about this.
Right now police are all about prevention. They aren’t sure who this guy is, but they want people to know he’s out there, and he certainly is not a part of the athens clarke county police department.
Some people in the area certainly did not expect to see the name, ACCPD, come up on their caller ID’s.
But what they heard, was not an officer. It was a man with a thick Indian accent asking people to call back a New York telephone number about the Athens Clarke County Police.
Service Officer Julita Sanders with the Athens Clarke County Police Department says they know of at least five people who received this scam phone call.
Although it is unclear why this man called, it isn’t all that uncommon. There are multiple applications and sites on the internet that people can use to call using any name or number on caller ID.
The people who are most concerned about this new phony phone call are senior citizens.
Jessica Bankston a Georgia Cares coordinator says she has already heard some of the elderly people she works with have received this phone call.
Bankston says, “Most of the time seniors trust the police, obviously we all want to trust them. So they feel an urge to give, they feel like if they don’t, they’re not being a good person.”
She tells all of her clients the same thing, “We really try to get the word out to people, they don’t have to answer, they can just hang up.”
And it’s the same advice the Athens Clarke County Police Department is giving. Sanders says, “We just want people to be aware that the police department is never going to call someone asking for any type of personal information.”
And again, the ACCPD don’t know who this man is or where he is calling from. Because he is not calling the 911 office they are unable to trace his number. So for now they advise anyone who receives this phone call, or any other suspicious phone call just to hang up.
