The Greencastle Police Department is warning residents about a new scam that is going around Greencastle.
According to law enforcement officials, a person is calling residents pretending to be a Greencastle Police officer and asking them to pay a citation. The caller ID shows the call originating from the Greencastle Police Department.
Greencastle assistant police chief Edward Wilson said the department will never call a resident asking for them to pay a citation.
"We will not come to your residence to collect or ask anyone to meet in an “alternate” location. Fines are collected at the department or online through the website found on the back of the citations," Wilson told The Putnam County Post.
Police chief Christopher Jones said his department first heard about the scam Friday with a few calls coming into the department.
"We received a few calls directly to the Station on Friday about the scam call going around. Since these scammers can use real officer names and show they are calling from one of our department non-emergency numbers, which is all info easily learned from basic internet searches, it's best if they just hang up and call directly to the department to go directly to the source. This applies to all types of scams where scammers pretend to be a government agency or family member," Jones told The Putnam County Post.
Jones said with the rise of AI voice generators, it is easier for scammers to fool victims into thinking they are talking to someone they know.
"When they start talking about money, account numbers or passwords, please hang up and call the source directly and you can find out if this is truly a scam or not," Jones said.
Jones said it is "very difficult" to track these calls down.
"By the time it is traced back to a number, it almost always comes back to a place out of the country. It's best for folks to report these scams to the Indiana Attorney General's Office, online or phone, where they keep track of these things. The more a particular scam is reported, the more likely it will be investigated by the State, who works with the federal government, to go after these scammers, even when they are overseas," Jones said.
