Festus Police Chief Tim Lewis is warning people about a phone scam in which the caller claims to be from the Internal Revenue Service and demands money. In addition, the phone number that appears on caller ID looks like the call is coming from the Festus Police Department.
However, Festus Police do not call people and ask for money or payment of any kind, Lewis said.
“We would never ask you for money or any form of payment over the phone,” he said. “There are times we call as a courtesy on a warrant for them to turn themselves in. But, we would not call to ask for money.”
The IRS doesn’t call people demanding money either, authorities say.
Lewis said he was contacted by a St. Louis TV news program about the matter when a victim from the St. Louis area called the TV station to report the scam, which reportedly occurred April 24.
“(The TV station) said they were called by someone in St. Louis,” Lewis said. “That’s the only one (scam call using the number) I know of.”
However, Lewis said it’s likely that other calls have been made using the Festus Police phone number. He asks anyone who gets that kind of scam call to report it to Festus Police by calling 636-937-3646.
“If anyone gets one of these calls saying Festus Police, hang up and call us,” Lewis said.
Lewis said he can only speculate why the scammers would use a number trying to make it look like the police department is calling.
“I think the scammers use numbers at random to an area or, maybe, purposely use a police department’s number (to legitimize the scam claim),” he said.