Indiana's governor and attorney general say scammers are posing as state licensing staff and faking caller ID to steal personal information from license holders.
Indiana officials are warning licensed professionals about a phone scam. Callers claim to work for the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, known as PLA. They use a fake, or "spoofed," phone number, so the call can look official on your screen. Their goal is to get your personal information.
Gov. Mike Braun and Attorney General Todd Rokita issued the warning together. They say the callers impersonate PLA staff and try to pull personal details out of the people they reach. Spoofing means a scammer makes a different number show up on your caller ID. A familiar or official-looking number does not prove who is calling.
Rokita called the scammers "digital pickpockets." He said they are getting more sophisticated by the day. Braun said they are preying on the trust Hoosiers place in their government.
According to the officials, PLA does not ask for personal information, such as Social Security numbers, over the phone in this way. It also does not threaten license suspension or legal action. It does not demand immediate payment either.
That gives you a simple test. If a caller does any of those things, the call is not real. A threat paired with a rush to act is a common pressure tactic. It is meant to make you answer before you think.
The warning is aimed first at licensed professionals in Indiana, since they are the people PLA deals with. Officials also urged the general public to stay alert. Anyone could get a call from someone posing as a state employee. The governor and attorney general asked people to share the warning with colleagues and other license holders.
The alert box above lays out the steps, including how to verify a call and where to report one. In short, hang up and contact the agency yourself using the number on its official website, not a number the caller gives you.
The material does not say how many people have received these calls. It also does not say whether anyone has lost money or information, or what number the scammers used. Officials have not said how long the calls have been going on.
If a caller claiming to be the state licensing agency threatens your license or demands payment, hang up and call the agency using its official website number.
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