The published public phone number of 317-232-8248 for the Indiana State Police General Headquarters in downtown Indianapolis is 317-233-8248. Late last week the ISP reported to the public the number has been spoofed. Caller ID spoofing is a service that allows a caller to masquerade as someone else by falsifying the number that appears on the recipient’s caller ID display.
People from across the country are reporting the spoof calls have the Indiana State Police number and the person calling identified themselves as being with the Indiana State Police. The complaints report the caller usually “a thick Indian accent” but not necessarily all the time.
Anyone receiving an unsolicited phone call from a person alleging to be a law enforcement officer, or other form of government official should be suspicious of the call if threats of arrest are made or personal information one would not normally provide to a stranger is asked for. If you are suspicious of a call, and a caller ID number is displayed, you can immediately do one of two things after you hand up, type the phone number into your favorite search engine and you may see the number has been reported as being associated to scam activity and or call back the number displayed to see if it was spoofed. The call will either ring without ever being answered or the true holder of the phone number will answer and you can report the number has been spoofed to the legitimate holder of the phone number
As with past warnings on alleged government representatives calling to threaten immediate jailing for not cooperating with the person calling, please remember to NEVER give personal information to the caller such as: Bank Account Numbers, Social Security Number, Birth Date, Credit Card Numbers and any other close personal information on yourself or other family members
Regrettably, these scams nearly always trace back to a foreign country and it is virtually impossible to successfully prosecute the persons responsible for these criminal acts. Unfortunately these scams will continue as long as a percentage of the population responds by giving their personal information or sends money to the scammers.
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