CPD Sgt. urges citizens to be careful if they receive calls from people asking for money to avoid being arrested

CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Assistant Public Services Division commander with the Charleston Police Department Sgt. Travis Bailes is warning citizens to be extra cautious when receiving calls from people demanding money over the phone.

Bailes was on MetroNews Midday to talk about recent scammers calling citizens pretending to be an officer with the Charleston Police Department, claiming that the citizen has outstanding warrants out for their arrests or that they have missed jury duty.

The scammers are then asking citizens to purchase prepaid gift cards and provide the scammer the card information over the phone to avoid being arrested.

Bailes says that they have resorted to using the names of actual officers within the department to make it seem real, while also phrasing it in a way that encourages people to act.

“Makes them fearful that they’re going to be in trouble, so they go out and purchase these gift cards and then send the codes to the people that requested them thinking they are going to be fine, when in fact they were never in trouble to begin with,” he said.

Another way that makes the call seem real, is the phone number that pops up whenever they call citizens.

Bailes says that that they use spoofing apps in order to change the phone number.

“They will utilize these apps to make it seem like it’s coming from a City of Charleston number and that further fool’s people,” he said.

He said that this is a nationwide issue and citizens who fall for it once are more susceptible to fall for the scam again.

CPD released a warning for citizens Monday evening.

Bailes says that he hopes the warning will help citizens become aware of these scammers.

“We were hoping to get this word out there a little bit more to try to prevent these things because the only way we can prevent them is the public to be aware of it and to hopefully follow the advice we can give them,” he said.

The main advice Bailes says that he can give to someone if they receive a call like this is to hang up and report the calls.

“Call us directly if you feel like you need to verify and report any scam calls you receive and the phone numbers associated with them to the Federal Trade Commission, that way they can follow up on it,” he said.

You can report the calls to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or call them at 877-382-4357.

Bailes says for local help, you can contact their records Division or call 304-348-6400.

The police department also encourages citizens who receive these calls to alert family, friends and neighbors.