By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A local couple were hit with a new twist on an old scam with a caller pretending to be an officer from the Chehalis Police Department.
Detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said the scheme involved the fraudster somehow managing to make the recipient’s caller ID appear as though the phone call came from the police department.
“They’re using one of our officer’s names, asking for Western Union type payments,” Wilson said yesterday.
Wilson said he was contacted on Wednesday by the target who got suspicious and called him instead of falling for the trick.
The sergeant wants to remind the public to never give out personal information to anyone who calls asking for it.
The Chehalis Police Department does not ever ask people for payments over the telephone, he said.
“The bottom line is we would never ask anyone to send Western Union or money to anywhere,” Wilson said.
In this particular case, Wilson said, a Chehalis woman was told on the phone an officer would contacting her in a follow up phone call and her husband answered when that call came.
He was skeptical and began grilling the person on the phone, Wilson said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
There are criminals posing as cops now? Come on guys… The cops have a bad enough reputation on their own, don’t make it worse. Then again… Idk how much worse it can even get. Who would even fall for that?