MAYFLOWER, Ark. — The Mayflower Police Department issued a warning on its Facebook page Monday evening and said someone has been calling residents, pretending to be from the department.
The issue is no one from the department is doing that.
Mayflower Police Department Detective Robert Hensley is frustrated and slightly confused by the scam. He said it doesn't make sense to pretend to be a department member in a town where most people know each other.
"I don't treat them like strangers or anybody like that," Hensley said. "Treat everybody like I know them."
Part of that scam involves the person impersonating the department, saying they need documents signed. Hensley said at least 10 people have gotten this call since Monday afternoon – and not just from Mayflower.
"There was a few from here; most were from around the state," Hensley said.
Unfortunately, Hensley said he knows this probably won't slow down anytime soon.
"Getting into the holiday, it's gonna happen a lot more," Hensley said.
Cara Carlin with the Better Business Bureau of Arkansas agreed and said scammers will be bolder at this time of year.
"We see these alerts coming from other local police departments in the state, so it's definitely not unheard of," Carlin said. "People are more likely to fall for these hyper-specific scams, and the scammers have the tools to impersonate voices, phone numbers, everything these days. It's getting harder and harder to spot those."
The advice from the Better Business Bureau is simple – if you don't know the number, don't answer.
"Send off a red flag in your head, get you on your guard that maybe this isn't legitimate," Carlin said.
Hensley said they're looking into who is doing this. With a town as close as theirs, something like this can undermine trust, which is something they don't want.
"If we don't, and we act like it's not a big deal, then we're not going to get that trust," Hensley said. "That's why we take it seriously."
As a reminder, if you're ever concerned the call you're getting may not be real, call the group the person said they're from, as they'll be able to confirm if the call is legitimate.