Anchorage police say someone has been impersonating APD Chief Mark Mew and prank calling people.
In one case, the police chief impersonator threatened to arrest a man unless he paid a $700,000 fine.
As it turns out, this is just the latest scam trend—it's called “spoofing.”
Spoofing allows scammers to use someone else's phone number for caller ID purposes, and then the scammer tries to get money from the person on the other end of the line.
The problem, however, is the scammers have the victim's personal information including birth date and social security number.
It's a national scamming trend that's hit Alaska and Anchorage police are urging residents not to fall for it.
“We do not collect civil debts. We don’t arrest people for not paying civil debts. If there’s fraud involved then that would be a crime, but this seems to be a new wave of scams that is kind of hitting the United States,” said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.
