(Atlantic, Iowa) – Many residents of Atlantic (& possibly elsewhere in the County) received phone calls Friday morning, threatening the call recipient with arrest if the person did not return the original call.

If you receive this type of call…simply hang-up. If you received a voice mail, do not return the call. The phone call appear to originate out of Poland. KJAN contacted to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and received a response we’ve heard about this, and other phone scams:

“There are several variations of law enforcement or government imposter calls and they are often made to get you to give them your personal information or pay a supposed fine. In one version of this scam the caller tries to convince you that your Social Security number has been suspended because of suspicious activity or because it’s connected to a serious crime. They will often give a badge, case number and officer’s name to convince you it is a legitimate call. They may even supply a phone number. We recommend you do not call them back.

In other scenarios police imposters claim there’s an outstanding warrant for an unpaid traffic ticket, missed jury duty or other violation and threaten immediate arrest if the fine isn’t paid. Sometimes they demand your credit card number or suggest you pay in gift cards. Police neither give advance warning of arrests nor solicit money for unpaid fines. If you really owe, you’ll be mailed a court summons or other official notification you can verify. They would never demand payment in the form of gift cards.

To avoid these calls our office recommends, if you are able, to use your caller ID to screen your phones calls. Scammers can use computer programs that “spoof” or mask their real phone number.  You should answer only those calls whose number you recognize. This will indicate to the source of the call that they have not reached a valid number. Usually, the caller gives up at some point, looking for more fertile ground.”