Manheim residents should be aware of scam callers pretending to be police officers or agency employees, along with a scam that targets the elderly, according to the Manheim Borough Police Department.
The spam calls spoof the phone numbers of local police department’s, sheriff department’s or other organizations including banks.
Spoofing, according a news release from the department, is the criminal act of disguising phone numbers, email addresses, display names, text messages or websites to gain access to a person’s computer system or bank information.
A resident reported to police Wednesday that they got a call from a scammer that spoofed the police department’s phone number. Manheim Police Chief Joseph Stauffer said a similar call has already been made spoofing the phone number of the Lititz Police Department, and another one from a police department in York County.
Stauffer said that these calls can come from different places in Lancaster County or outside of the county.
Scammers will sometimes ask about fraudulent activity on different accounts ranging from Amazon accounts to bank accounts, or that a relative was in a crash or arrested. They may also request bail money or some sort of electronic payment, police said.
Police also warn residents of the “grandparent scam,” which targets the elderly and is aimed to get people to go to…
