Guelph police warn of fraudsters ‘spoofing’ their phone number

Guelph police say their number has been popping up on the call display of phones lately but it’s not actually them calling.

Instead, it’s a fraudster who police warn is using their 519-824-1212 phone number and claiming to be conducting an investigation.

“Such calls are placed with technology which easily allows the caller to ‘spoof’ a legitimate phone number so that the number appears on the recipient’s call display,” police said.

An officer with the service even received a call, police added.

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The caller will usually claim to be a person of authority and ask for personal information such as a social insurance number or banking information, police said.

“Anyone receiving such a call should hang up without providing any information,” police said.

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The service noted that if an officer did call, it would come up as “unknown caller” on the call display.

Guelph police recommend letting unexpected calls or unknown phone numbers go to voicemail. People who do answer and hear a recorded message should hang up without pressing any numbers.

Phone numbers can also be registered with Canada’s Do Not Call list to reduce telemarketing calls.