Scammers can make a call show a real police number. Caller ID is no proof of who is on the line, so a official-looking number should not be trusted.
Police forces in the UK are being impersonated in scam calls, and the number on your screen may look completely real. The warning comes through Report Fraud, the UK's national fraud reporting service, and was shared by Northamptonshire Police. The trick is called spoofing.
Spoofing means a scammer makes a call display a number that is not really theirs. In this case, the number can be a genuine police number. That can make a call feel official before the person even speaks. The key point from the warning is simple: caller ID alone is not proof of who is calling, even when the number looks official.
Anyone with a phone could get one of these calls. The people most at risk are those who might trust a call that seems to come from the police. That is why the warning also asks people to tell older family members about this trick.
The steps are in the alert box above. In short, hang up if a caller claiming to be police asks for money, bank details or passwords. Then check by calling back on a number you looked up yourself.
The material does not say how many calls have been made, how much money has been lost, or which police forces have been copied. It also does not say how long the calls have been going on. Anyone who gets one can report it to Report Fraud, which helps build a picture of how widespread it is.
Never trust the number on your screen; if a supposed police caller asks for money or details, hang up and call back on a number you found yourself.
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