On Friday, October 9, at approximately 4:00 PM a Billerica resident received a call from an individual claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service. The calling party’s telephone number allegedly came up on caller ID as the Billerica Police Department. The caller advised the victim that he owed back income taxes that needed to be sent via Money Gram immediately or he would face criminal charges. The victim ultimately wired a large sum of money to the caller.

The Billerica Police want to repeat that anyone who requests money or personal financial information over the phone is likely scamming you. Some of these scammers use sophisticated methods, which they continually modify to throw off law enforcement. The use of a “spoofing tool” to change the incoming caller ID number on a target’s phone is a commonly used scam.

Please speak to your friends and family, especially those in the advanced years, to update them on some of these common scams. Residents are also encouraged to visit the Federal Government’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center for the most recent advisories and nations wide trends in the area of electronic crimes.