WINTER PARK, Fla. — Winter Park police are investigating a phone scam in which the callers may have hacked the department’s non-emergency number.
A 69-year-old Winter Park woman, who asked not to be identified, called police Monday to a report a possible IRS scam.
When an officer got to her home, she was on the phone with someone claiming to be a Winter Park police officer.
“I had never been scammed before,” she said. “I feel very mad about it.”
The woman gave the phone to the officer, who said the person on the other line said he was a detective with the department and worked strictly for the chief.
The caller would not identify himself and handed the phone to a woman who also refused to identify herself, but said she was a sergeant.
When the officer aiding the victim told the woman on the line that she was talking to a police officer, she hung up.
The woman told police she got the initial call earlier in the day and was told she owed the IRS $3,000. The caller told her to go to Target and buy a $500 gift card, which she did.
She then gave the caller the gift card’s serial number.
“He tells me, ‘Something is not right we couldn’t get the correct information,’” the victim said.
The caller told her there was an error and she needed to go to Walmart to get more $500 gift cards.
“At that particular point is when I stopped and said to myself, ‘I believe this is a scam,’” she said.
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She called Winter Park police from inside the store.
After speaking to the caller and interviewing the victim, the officer was walking back to his vehicle when the victim came outside and said the person called again.
The officer said in a report that he talked to the same woman again on the phone, and she demanded his badge number before telling him he was fired and hanging up the phone.
The officer noticed the number was for the department’s non-emergency line and that the thieves were “spoofed” the non-emergency number.
Spoofing is a way to change a number that shows up on someone’s caller ID to hide the caller identity.
Cox Media Group
