The Watertown Police sent out the following information about a scam that was reported on Wednesday, Feb. 28:
This morning, a private citizen received a phone call from the Watertown Police Phone Number (617-972-6500) and the caller Identified themselves as Chief Hanrahan. The caller knew the citizen’s full name and then proceeded to tell her “we have illegal orders for you, if you don’t cooperate we are going to come to your house and arrest you”. When the citizen asked how to cooperate, she was told to provide certain personal information. The citizens’ instincts were correct and decided not to cooperate and hung up the phone.
This phone call was not real and was a scam. Chief Hanrahan and no one from the Watertown Police placed that phone call nor would the Watertown Police ever make a phone call like this. One of the troubling parts of this call was the caller ID Number was the correct number for the Watertown Police Station.
This was a scam. Please be very careful when you receive phone calls from people asking for certain information. For further information on how to best handle this, please review our social media pages, which have been updated on best practices in handling this type of scam.
Almost every week in the crime blotter, there are stories of people who are scammed over the phone or via email, incidents where people are contacted by con artists and somehow end up handing over gift cards or cash. It is unfortunate and sad. Don’t these people know any better, I wonder, and why isn’t there more public education about this? When the good name of the Watertown Police Dept is wrongfully used by an almost successful scammer, my household and I get the message via text, voicemail, and email (and in this online news outlet) to be aware of this scam perpetrated in the name of Chief Hanrahan. Surely this was a golden opportunity for the City of Watertown to do more and better outreach for its residents on how to handle scamming attempts such as these. Instead, there’s one little line on being careful and then referring to the Watertown Police Dept social media. What social media? Don’t make it so hard for people to get information while you cover your butt. The types of folks who may fall prey to such scams are likely people who aren’t following you on social media.