I’m sure many of you have received a call from a person claiming to be a police officer saying you’re in trouble, but it’s just a scammer on the other line. Well, you are not alone; even our local police officers get the same scam phone calls. Several viewers have reached out to me recently because they have received calls from scammers claiming there is an arrest warrant out for them.

“It’s scary,” Diane said. “The message was telling me that my name was in the Colorado Springs registry for fraud or something like that, but they were going to come after me if I didn’t call them back. I would be arrested within so many hours.”

“They said they were local police. There are four serious allegations pressed on my name,” Diane said. “When they said they’d take legal action against me, I’m going, ‘Oh, my gosh. No.’ ”

She was worried about what would happen next. “I’m going through some chemo treatments, and I’m going, ‘Great, they’re going to arrest me and I’m not going to be able to have my chemo treatments,’” she added.

Diane immediately called police and reached out to our 11 Call for Action team. “I decided I’d call the Police Department and ask them about that, and they told me not to worry about it,” Diane said. “They said it was a scam.” I told Diane the same thing and said I’ve heard of this one many times before. In fact, I’ve gotten the same scam call on numerous occasions, so have police.

“Last week, I received two of those calls, one on my work phone and one on my personal phone, that the local police were going to pick me up if I didn’t pay my taxes,” said Lt. Howard Black, a spokesperson with the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). “These folks are becoming more sophisticated. The bottom line is local law enforcement is not going to be asking you to bring money. That has to be a red flag for you.”

If you want to make sure you are dealing with a legitimate officer, you can ask them for their badge number. “If there’s any concern, I would encourage people to get the officer’s name, their IBM number (badge number) and call our communication center and just confirm that this officer is on duty,” said Black. You can call the CSPD non-emergency line at 719-444-7000.

Black said police officers do call residents, but they won’t threaten you to pay them.

“We would never, ever be calling and asking for money. If something doesn’t sound legitimate, please give us a call or your local law enforcement agency,” he said.

Don’t expect the scam calls to stop any time soon.

“They’re becoming more consistent. They’re not necessarily ebbing and flowing as much as they have in the past,” said Lt. Black.

As for Diane, she has a message for the scammers who gave her quite the scare: “Go out and get a job. Don’t be lazy and try to hurt somebody else.”