Phone scammers pretending to be local law enforcement
NAMPA, Idaho (KBOI) — Phone scammers are calling local residents claiming to be Nampa Police Officer Joel Woodward.
But Officer Woodward isn’t letting the situation get the best of himand proves that police officers are just like us.
“My name is Joel Woodward I work for the Nampa Police Department I did not try to scam you,” Woodward said as a PSA.
Scammers have been calling residents, claiming to be Officer Woodward of Nampa Police.
“They failed to report to jury duty or they had some sort of civil fine where they were requesting debit card or visa card and trying to get that information sent to this person to pay off some sort of crime or fine so they don’t have to go to jail for it,” Woodward said.
But in this case, choosing a Police Officer as an alias probably wasn’t the best plan of action.
“I thought it was kind of funny," Woodward said. "My sergeant was like hey you’re the one who is going to handle that because your name is all over it literally.”
Police don’t know who is behind the scam, but steps have already been taken to stop the calls.
“We got an email from the U.S. Courts stating that ‘you and another officer from a different agency, your names are kind of getting thrown around there through the valley on this scam so the Marshalls were contacted to basically try to shut down the phone number or the series of phone numbers with the fraud.”
And police warn to be cautious when handing information out over the phone.
“You know a police department is never going to request for money over the phone. We’re never going to ask for your information to pay any debts. We’re not in the money collecting or debt collecting business. We don’t collect money we serve the citizens and that’s our business.”
