Putnam sheriff warns of 'spoofing' scam using a dept. phone number

CARMEL, N.Y. — The Putnam County Sheriff's Office is warning residents about a spoofing scam where a caller pretending to be a deputy threatens people with arrest if they don't pay a fine. According to a Facebook post on the Putnam County Sheriff's Office account, the callers are spoofing the SCSO's main phone number: 845-225-4300.

“Someone is making calls pretending to be Deputy Green from our office,” the post says. “[They are] claiming that people owe fines and will be arrested if they don't pay. They are spoofing the number 225-4300.”

The spoofing report follows the recent arrest of two scammers targeting seniors by posing as representatives of the Federal Trade Commission. While the crimes appear unrelated, both involve bad actors posing as legitimate government agents to steal money.

READ: Arrests made after seniors targeted in ‘shoebox’ scam.

According to the FCC, “Spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Scammers often use neighbor spoofing so it appears that an incoming call is coming from a local number, or spoof a number from a company or a government agency that you may already know and trust. If you answer, they use scam scripts to try to steal your money or valuable personal information, which can be used in fraudulent activity.”

In caller ID spoofing, criminals can take advantage of the caller ID system. According to Wikipedia:

“Some technologies (especially in Voice over IP (VoIP) networks) allow callers to forge caller ID information and present false names and numbers. Gateways between networks that allow such spoofing and other public networks then forward that false information. Since spoofed calls can originate from other countries, the laws in the receiver's country may not apply to the caller. This limits laws' effectiveness against the use of spoofed caller ID information to further a scam.”

Experts estimate that attacks like spoofing and phishing cost the U.S. economy more than $320 billion in 2024.

The FCC offers these tips to protect yourself:

• You may not be able to tell right away if an incoming call is spoofed. Be extremely careful about responding to any request for personal identifying information.
• Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. If you answer such a call, hang up immediately.
• If you answer the phone and the caller — or a recording — asks you to hit a button to stop getting the calls, you should just hang up. Scammers often use this trick to identify potential targets.
• Do not respond to any questions, especially those that can be answered with "yes" or "no."
• Never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, mother's maiden names, passwords, or other identifying information in response to unexpected calls or if you are at all suspicious.
• If you get an inquiry from someone who says they represent a company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to verify the authenticity of the request. You will usually get a written statement in the mail before you get a phone call from a legitimate source, particularly if the caller is asking for a payment.
• Use caution if you are being pressured for information immediately.
• If you have a voicemail account with your phone service, be sure to set a password for it. Some voicemail services are preset to allow access if you call in from your own phone number. A hacker could spoof your home phone number and gain access to your voicemail if you do not set a password.
• Talk to your phone company about call-blocking tools and check into apps that you can download to your mobile device. The FCC allows phone companies to block robocalls by default based on reasonable analytics. More information about robocall blocking is available at fcc.gov/robocalls.

Remember to check your voicemail periodically to make sure you aren't missing important calls and to clear out any spam calls that might fill your voicemail box to capacity.