Tufts Police Warn of Phone Scam

– Allison Goldsberry

Tufts Police say members of the Tufts community are receiving fraudulent phone calls in which a person claiming to be a police officer attempts to extort money.

According to information from TUPD, someone claims to be a TUPD or Medford PD officer or a Massachusetts State Trooper, and tries to extort money from victims to resolve alleged arrest warrants or other legal or tax matters. The individual is also spoofing the caller ID of the police to make the call appear legitimate.

“These calls are not being made by any official from TUPD, Medford PD, or Massachusetts State Police. This activity is similar to other recent scams taking place across the country where the caller is attempting to solicit personal identifying information, such as date of birth, social security number, bank account information, or extort money,” TUPD said in a statement.

TUPD suggest several steps for protecting against these fraudulent calls. First, police suggest removing mobile numbers from Tufts’ white pages directory, as the caller appears to be obtaining the mobile numbers from the directory. Second, police say to never provide personal information or to supply money over the phone when contacted by an unsolicited caller without positively confirming the caller’s identity and legitimacy.

TUPD says anyone receiving one of these calls should hang up and report it immediately to police. TUPD has an online form for reporting these phone calls at http://publicsafety.tufts.edu/police/phonescam/.