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Greensburg Police: Scam calls ask for cryptocurrency to solve warrant
Greensburg police are warning residents this week about a scam in which a caller posed as a local officer and requested cryptocurrency to resolve a warrant, according to Detective Sgt. Justin Scalzo.
The caller told a woman she needed to pay $1,400. The call came from what appeared to be a legitimate local police agency, but Scalzo said the scammers used caller ID spoofing. The Federal Trade Commission That said, this occurs when a scammer falsifies the information transmitted to caller ID to appear to come from a trusted source.
“No one, in any law enforcement agency, is going to call anyone and say you owe us money, especially in any type of cryptocurrency,” Scalzo said.
It’s easy for a scammer to get a local police officer’s name from a public website and use it in an attempt to get money from someone, he said. This method can make the call seem credible, but anyone receiving this type of communication should be cautious, Scalzo said.
“If you believe you have been scammed, the best thing to do is physically go to your local police department or sheriff’s office and see what you can work out,” he said.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has worked at Trib lei since 2005. she can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.