Full Notification

It has been reported that some citizens have been receiving calls from the Mercersburg Police Department.  Callers are spoofing, the Mercersburg Police Department number of (717) 328-0150. A spoofed phone call is one that says that it’s coming from one specific phone number, person, or company when it pops up on your phone’s screen but is in fact being made by a completely different phone number. It can be hard to tell if a phone number is spoofed or not and tracing a spoofed phone number’s true digits can be almost impossible.
Spoofing is relatively easy to do by individuals and companies which means that you can’t always trust what the caller ID says when the phone call is received. Often a reverse caller ID check will simply redial the number displayed by the spoofing, not the actual number behind the call.

The citizens that have reported receiving the calls hung up because the caller had a foreign dialect, so it is unknown what the caller was trying to scam.

What to Do When You Get a Spoofed Phone Call:
Because it can be almost impossible to discover who’s behind a spoofed call there are several precautions you need to take when getting one.

1.   Avoid sharing personal or financial information. Spoofing is frequently used by phone scammers who try to steal your data. Legit companies will very rarely ask for bank account or credit card numbers or your Social Security number.

2   Don’t send money to spoof callers. In general, you shouldn’t send money to anyone that calls you on the phone. If someone says you owe money, hang up and dial the company’s official contact number to confirm.  

3.  Block repeat callers. If a number continues to call you, block it.  Even if the spoofed phone number is robocalling you, you can still block robocalls. 

4,  Don’t reply to texts. Replying to suspicious texts, even if they prompt you to reply with a word or number to opt out of future texts, can result in getting even more scam calls and messages. Simply delete the message and block the spoofed number. 

5.  Report the number. If you suspect that the phone number is being spoofed for illegal or suspicious reasons, you can report it to the FTC and other organizations for investigation. 
 
6.  If you receive a call where the telephone show the Mercersburg Police Department telephone number please and the caller has a foreign dialect identifies themselves as a police officer do not give any personal information to the caller. 
 
The Mercersburg Police Department will never ask for money or account information.  If you suspect the call may be a scam, please hang up and call the 911 or you can call the Mercersburg Police Department at (717) 328-0150.