Alaska State Troopers warned in an online dispatch Tuesday that scammers are impersonating the statewide law enforcement officers over the phone in an attempt to steal money.
A Palmer man reported to dispatchers Monday that someone called his brother claiming to be a trooper.
The scammer "stated he was a state trooper, and that his brother had a warrant for his arrest and owes money," according to the dispatch.
The scheme has been ongoing intermittently for more than a year, said trooper investigator Andrea Jacobson, who works with the agency's financial crimes unit.
It generally involves a man who identifies himself as a trooper using various names and ranks. He advises his targets of an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to show up to a court hearing. Next, the man demands bail money through unusual means like prepaid credit cards, Jacobson said.
Requests to visit a trooper post and callback numbers are also provided in some instances, which can make the call seem more legitimate. It's often the case that if the victim falls for the scam, they have already given up enough information at that point for the scammers to obtain money.
Jacobson recalled a case in which a man handed over the digits hidden behind a scratch-off surface on the back of a prepaid credit card. He was involved in a court proceeding over an estate and believed the call from the trooper impersonator to be real, she said.
By the time the man came to the agreed upon trooper post — where he was supposed to meet with a trooper, who was actually retired — he had lost $3,000, Jacobson said.
"It's sad that they actually used the name of one of our former colonels," she said. "He was mortified when he realized what happened because he lost all that money. The money was already gone, and there's no way to retrieve it."
The calls come from outside of the United States; the people behind the schemes use the internet to make the calls untraceable and appear as if they're local, Jacobson said.
The trooper scam is nothing new. Anchorage police cautioned the public about such calls in late 2015. It shares similarities with other phone scams using impersonation — of law enforcement, government officials or family members — as a driving component.
"It's anything that plays on people's fears to the point where the story is believed and the victims end up sending money," Jacobson said.
Alaska State Troopers do not ask for payment over the phone or offer to negotiate a reduced fee to avoid arrest. Warrants are posted online, so people can check if they're unsure.