Investigators are warning about an increase in phone scammers pretending to be police officers as part of an ongoing bank fraud across Ontario.
It’s a type of scam called “spoofing” and sees a fraudster fake the telephone number they are calling from to convince victims to answer the call.
And while the calls appear to be coming from legitimate police agencies and anti-fraud groups, the callers are in fact scammers who put pressure on victims “to provide personal information, transfer funds or assist in a fake investigation,” the OPP says.
Call ID spoofing scammers have impersonated officers from the OPP, the RCMP, the Toronto Police Service and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
In some cases, police say victims are tricked by the scammers into believing they are helping catch “a dishonest bank employee or resolve suspicious transactions” by providing personal information or transferring funds.
On top of faking call numbers, scammers …