Over the past few days, police in the Cowichan Valley have received reports stating people have received calls where the caller ID is misleading, and scammers are identifying themselves as police officers.
Caller ID Spoofing Scam is when the caller deliberately disguises their phone number to appear on caller ID in order to appear to be a legitimate company, Service Canada or in some cases a police department.
The caller has asked for personal information such as banking details and social insurance numbers and other personal information.
The North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment has released advice on how people can protect themselves from phone and text messaging scams:
• Do not click on attached links. They may lead you to fake websites.
• Do not give out your personal or financial information through the phone or text messages.
• Do not respond to robocallers prompting you to push a number to be placed on a “do not call list”.
• Utility or phone/internet companies generally do not collect credit card or bank account information over the phone, by email or by text.
• No government agency or bank will threaten to arrest you.
• Government agencies will not request payment in Bitcoin, iTunes cards, gift cards or Interac e-Transfers.
If you are a victim of fraud in which you have incurred a financial loss and/or given out your personal information, call your local police to report the incident.