Some Bay Area residents have started to receive scam phone calls with the caller ID displaying a San Francisco Police Department phone number.
Police said callers claim the people answering have outstanding warrants, or that they have committed a crime and have fines that need to be paid, in order to get information from them.
The San Francisco Police Department told KCBS Radio on Friday that some recipients called the listed number back, which led them to the department’s phone number. It is unknown how many people have received these calls, but police said about 25 people reported it.
"There was an uptick in these call in a week and a half so therefore, we put out a social media blast," a police department spokesperson wrote in an email to KCBS Radio.
The police department wants the public aware to know these calls are a scam, and they should not give out any information to these callers.
Police said they aren’t sure how the callers are displaying the department’s phone number. The San Francisco Police Department warned in April of a similar trend, claiming callers had "spoofed" the department’s caller ID, or displayed it as their own.
Other police departments across the U.S. have had their numbers spoofed, and the Federal Communications Commission encourages victims of spoofing scams to file complaints here. Illegal spoofing carries fines of up to $10,000 according to the agency.