If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be an officer asking you to call the courthouse, police in Sarnia say you should hang up.
According to police, the callers have been identifying themselves as “Officer Davis” or “Officer Hall,” neither of whom are even members of the Sarnia Police Service, and claim that personal information has been compromised. The callers then provide a phone number and tell the intended victim to call it.
The phone number is an actual number “that pertains to the Sarnia Police Service Court Office,” but it appears that if people call that number right away, “the scammers are still holding your line and will attempt to ask you questions regarding your personal identifiers” like date of birth, full name, and SIN.
Police say if you don’t call back within a certain window of time or the scammers lose the hold on your phone line, then the call actually goes through to the courthouse.
“We are asking people not to call back but rather just hang up and disregard the call,” said Const. Giovanni Sottosanti in a news release.
“These calls are tying up phone lines and unfortunately there is nothing that can be done. So please do not give anyone any information and just hang up.”
Earlier this month, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre confirmed that scam calls are on the rise across the country. In the first seven months of 2020, the centre received 23,655 reports tied to telephone solicitations. That’s on track to nearly double numbers from to 2019, when it received 24,835 reports for the whole year.
–With files from Global News’ Sarah Ryan.