Port St. Lucie - Monday June 6, 2022: The Port St. Lucie Police Department has an alert advising residents to beware of suspicious callers asking for money and pretending to be from the police department.
The alert was issued on the PSLPD Facebook page last week after a 75-year-old woman was scammed out of more than $9-thousand by a man who called her and said he was a Port St. Lucie Police Sergeant.
The scammer also utilized caller ID spoofing so it appeared that he was calling from a legitimate police department phone number. He proceeded to talk the woman into buying $9,430 worth of gift cards from different stores and he provided the gift card numbers over the phone.
The PSL Police Department advises that "no police department or government organization will ever call and request ... payment (for) gift cards, please don’t fall victim to this scam and immediately hang up."
In the event you receive a call from a police department phone number and are unsure if you are speaking to a real officer, hang up and call PSLPD at 772-871-5000.