South Salt Lake Police phone number ‘spoofed’

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah, Dec. 21, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — The South Salt Lake Police Department says its phone number has been “spoofed,” and is being used in a scam to lure people into sending money.

“What we’ve found is that the phone calls coming into our police department have increased and the locations have increased across the nation as well,” a SSLPD statement says.

“The scam is called spoofing, and it surfaced today,” Friday, Dec. 21.

“You can make it appear as if you’re calling from any number, any name, anywhere and although we are currently investigating the scam, this type of crime is very difficult to solve because it’s almost impossible to trace the call to
its real origin.”

The scam works like this: The crook calls someone, and the main South Salt Lake Police Department number pops up on the victim’s caller ID.

“They then tell the victim that their loved one has been arrested and needs money for bail or a lawyer,” the statement says. “We, as a police department, would never call and solicit funds.”

Spoofing is not new, the statement says, “and it is unusual, but not unprecedented to use a law enforcement agency as part of the crime.”

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