The following is a press release Wednesday morning from the Urbana Police Division:
“The Urbana Police Division wants to make the public aware of recent attempts at telecommunication fraud locally, where the caller impersonates an Urbana police officer. In some of these calls, the caller requests payment through untraceable currency transfers under the guise that a family member of the person called is being held in jail on criminal charges and needs bail money to be released from custody, or needs money to get their impounded motor vehicle released.
Police want citizens to know that if they receive a phone call from someone claiming to be an Urbana police officer, or any other law enforcement member, it will never be to seek monetary payment for anything. If you receive that type of call, it’s best to simply hang up and block that phone number from future calls. Never send money or give your personal identifiers or bank account numbers to these callers.
Remember, law enforcement officers will never call to say you’re going to be arrested if you don’t comply with their directions, and officers won’t call asking you to pay for someone’s fines by cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency, payment app, or through a wire transfer service.”
