Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - Amherst Police is warning residents of a phone scam relating to a person stating they are an Amherst Police Officer and that there are outstanding parking ticket fines.
"We were recently just made aware of this, that one of our officers names was listed as reaching out to people and advising them to pay fines to the Amherst Police Department via either gift cards or Venmo, or some other type of a financial app to settle these fines. That's a complete scam, it is not the Amherst Police Department. No agency will ever request people to pay fines in that mode," said Amherst Police Lt. Dale Goudy in an interview with WBEN.
Lt. Goudy says it's very common for scammers to try and impersonate law enforcement agencies and other government agencies like the IRS.
"They try to use a sense of urgency to get people to pay fines. It is a complete scam. Nobody will ever ask you to pay via gift card or Venmo or Cash app, or any other those applications to send money," Lt. Goudy reiterated.
The fact that someone is trying to scam others using the name of an officer on the force is concerning for officials like Lt. Goudy.
"The question starts to arise if they have access to any type of other officers names. And when [it's] officers names that are actually working for the police department, it's obviously concerning, because you'd like to know where they got that information," the Lieutenant said."
To Lt. Goudy's knowledge, the department has only received one call regarding this scam, at this point. However, if anybody else has received the same or similar phone call, he urges them to call to assist in the ongoing investigation.
"If you're ever concerned that you think you might be the victim of a scam, I always urge people to call back on verified numbers, numbers they know belong to that," Lt. Goudy said. "If you receive a call and it's somebody identifying themselves as the Amherst Police and you have a question on that, hang up, verify you have a correct number for the Amherst Police and call that."
So how does the Amherst Police Department normally go about tracking down those who owe parking ticket fines and other traffic ticket fines?
"If it's a legitimate fine, like a legitimate ticket that was issued and it was legitimate fine that is actually from the Amherst Town Court, you'd be contacted usually via mail from addresses that we have. It'll never be text messages or these type of scams that we're seeing nowadays," Lt. Goudy explained.
Here are some other tips to help avoid becoming a victim to this scam:
- Never give personal or financial information to an unsolicited caller or email;
- Be suspicious of callers who demand immediate payment for any reason;
- Stay private. Regularly update privacy settings for social media sites;
- Scammers often make their stories more believable by trolling for personal information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and similar sites;
- Never wire cash or provide debit/credit card numbers to a stranger.
If you are the victim of a scam, particularly this one, you are urged to contact the Amherst Police Department on their non-emergency line at (716)-689-1311.