The Bismarck Police Department is warning the public of a possible scam to obtain credit card numbers. We recently became aware of three cases where a male caller called the victim on the telephone claiming to be an employee of a local business. The caller said there was a problem with the credit card number given for a recent transaction, and the caller wanted the credit card number again. The victims report the Caller ID of the suspect matched that of the local business.
Police suspect spoofing technology is being used, that enables the scammer to cause the telephone network to display a number on the recipient's Caller ID display which is not that of the actual caller.
We want to alert the public that this is happening, and that you can’t rely on Caller ID to know who you are talking to on the phone. Don’t give out any personal or financial information unless you are sure you know who you are talking to, and it’s almost impossible to know who you are talking to if they call you. The only way to be sure is to look the number up yourself in the directory and call the business back.