HOLLIS – The Hollis Police Department is warning local residents of a new telephone technique intended to defraud people of information or money.

Caller ID spoofing is the practice of falsifying the information about an incoming call on the receiver’s caller ID display. Scammers will manipulate the caller ID so that the call appears to be coming from a local or well-known phone number, making it more likely to be trusted or answered.

Hollis Police Chief Joseph Hoebeke said there have been sporadic reports of spoofing in the area and those reports are typically are found on social media platforms.

“We wanted to provide a pre-emptive safety tip reminder,” he said. “I received one email from a gentleman who said, ‘It would be nice the P.D. put something out on spoofing.’ I thought that was a really good idea and I did a little research and wanted to put some information out there.”

If you answer, the scammer may employ social engineering tactics in an attempt to steal your money or valuable information. These tactics can range from simple requests for you to hit a button on your phone, to larger requests, such as asking for hour Social Security number. While the latter may seem easily avoidable, the tactics that scammers employ can be so subtle or deceiving that individuals do not question their legitimacy or authority.

Telemarketers and scammers alike appear to only be getting better at spoofing, considering the growing prevalence of robocalls. Individuals must instead learn how to recognize and prevent caller ID spoofing themselves. This be the surest way to protect our personal information.

Hollis police said that spoofers are using an app to replace their phone number with somebody else’s, including those numbers belonging to a police department. This allows them to place calls so they may look more official. Many of the spoofing apps can be downloaded for free and scammers can even decide which number he or she wasn’t to use as the spoofer number.

“Spoofers often target a certain audience for a certain type of audience for a certain type of scam, such as IRS scams or the ‘grandchild in jail’ scam,” a statement read. “Senior citizens are often targeted by spoofers who try to represent themselves as family members in need of money.”

Hoebeke said the hope is that by providing some information about spoofing, the department can reduce the number of spoofing victims.

“Spoofing is probably more common than what we know of,” he said. “I would consider it a huge threat. Typically what happens is that scammers will focus on a vulnerable population like senior citizens who isn’t tech savvy in the hope of defrauding them of money, which is carry.”

The number-one tip against spoofing is to never give out any personal information over the telephone. If you are unsure about the legitimacy of the call, hang up the phone. If it is a legitimate service, they will call you back, but if they are trying to defraud you, it is more likely that they will not call back.

Know the company that the spoofer is claiming to work for. For example, IRS scams can be easily caught by doing this; the IRS does not call people over the phone.

The best piece of advice, Hollis police said, is if you do not recognize the number, let the callers leave a voicemail.

If you do answer and the call sounds suspicious, hang up.

It is not unreasonable for you to tell the caller that you want their personal information so you can go online and verify what they are saying to be true.

Although blocking numbers is impossible since scammers can use whatever number they desire, it is possible to report spoofing numbers to the Federal Communications Commission.

“Spoofing is becoming more prevalent,” Hoebeke said. “People come up with pretty ingenious ways to rip people off so I think we’re going to see this become a bigger issue.”