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Phone scammers using Las Vegas police prefix to fool victims

Updated January 22, 2019 - 11:07 pm

Telephone scammers have been disguising their phone numbers by using the Metropolitan Police Department’s “828” prefix number in order to solicit or scam victims in the Las Vegas Valley, the department said Tuesday.

The agency is reminding the public that Metro does not call and solicit payments of any sort over the telephone.

Metro advises that anyone unsure of a caller’s authenticity should ask for a name and patrol number and report the call to the department at 702-828-3111.

The department has received multiple reports to date of the caller ID spoofing scam, which allows a person to display a different area code and phone number than the one for the device used to make the call, police said. The technology works for both phone calls and text messages on smart phones.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.

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