Sophisticated 'Caller ID Spoofing' Scam Nearly Traps North Canton Resident

North Canton Police Chief Stephan Wilder issued the following alert Friday afternoon:

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 at approximately 1247 hours the North Canton Police Department responded to a senior resident’s complaint regarding an unknown caller requesting personal information in order to award a $600,000.00 sweepstakes. 

The caller identified himself as an FBI Agent working on the disbursement of the funds. The resident could verify this by calling the local police department to confirm this was not a scam.

The resident did call the North Canton Police Department and left a voice mail to speak with a detective about this. 

In the meantime a patrol officer responded to speak with the resident. While the police officer was speaking with the resident, a caller, identifying himself as a North Canton Police Detective, stated he had researched the FBI Agent’s actions and that $1400.00 cash needed to be sent to Mexico City in a family members name. No police department detective was making the call.

The Caller ID displayed the name of the detective and the phone number of the North Canton Police Department when the call was received. However, the FBI Agent’s phone call displayed “out of the area”. No suspect information is available at this time.

The North Canton Police Department wants the public to be aware that this incident is in all probability the product of “Caller ID spoofing”. 

In general, Caller ID spoofing is a method which causes the telephone network to display a number on the recipient’s Caller ID display that is not that of the originating station. 

The police department’s phone number was chosen by the caller, thus trying to trick the receiver into thinking the call was coming from the detective and to respond to the agent’s instruction to wire money to cover the cost of awarding the sweepstakes winnings. No money was ever sent. The resident did the right thing by reporting this to the police department.