Full Notification

The police department received a call this afternoon from a woman in the Pittsburgh area saying she received a call with the caller ID showing Cornwall Police Department, and the originating number being 717-274-2071, which is the office number for the department. The male caller claimed to be a police officer and told the woman there was a warrant for her arrest and in order to satisfy the fines & costs of the warrant she needed to provide her bank account information, date of birth and social security number. Although the woman did not provide bank account information, she did give her date of birth and social security number to the caller.
The practice of making a telephone call appear to be a number other than the one the call is originating from is a fraudulent practice known as "number spoofing". It occurs when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted via Caller ID to disguise the true number they are calling from.
The department received a 2nd call where the caller would only say that the police department number was "spoofed". He hung-up before we could obtain additional information.
The police department would NEVER call someone asking for bank information, date of birth, and/or social security number in order to satisfy a warrant.