Weird calls from police/people saying they are the police

October 30, 2015 10:13 AM

Why am I always getting weird phone calls from (people saying they are?) cops, and then make themselves difficult to get ahold of? Is this a scam or something else? I'm curious about the mechanics of why this might be happening.

I got a new phone Seattle area code phone number a little over two years ago. For the first year and a half, I got calls from debt collectors looking for one of two men, different first and last names. Most calls were for one man in particular. I also occasionally received texts that made me suspect the previous owner of the phone was a drug dealer. These calls and texts weren't super-frequent (at most 2/month) and have disappeared almost completely.

But here's what's weird--about six months ago, I started receiving a number of unusual calls from different police departments/people claiming to be from the police. Probably 10 different incidents. I'm wary about answering the phone for numbers I don't recognize so I haven't actually talked to anyone in person. These calls almost always occur very early in the day (5 am - 8 am) as well.

Some examples: Last month, I received a message from a police station in one of the southern suburbs of Seattle looking for a man with a different name than the other two men above. They didn't leave a phone number, just said "You know how to reach us." The next day I received a similar call from a different suburb looking for a man with a similar name (Like, John Peterson vs Jonathan Peterson). Again, no number but the caller left a name and I looked it up and he is an officer with that district.

Another time I received a voicemail from a social worker associated with a different, Eastside suburban city asking for a different man. She was very gentle and kept insisting "You're not in trouble. We just need you to tell us what happened." It felt to me like she was leaving a message for a teenager. This woman left a number and I called back and talked to her. She was clearly disappointed to realize she didn't have the right number. Another time I had a series of ~8 missed calls (no voicemails) from a phone number I looked up to be the main number for another suburban police distract (When I called it back, it was a general "You've reached the office of ____" message, with no way to talk to someone). I have had about 10 different incidents like this starting in early summer--about half of them ask for someone specific, other times they just ask for a call back. They rarely leave numbers. Most are from suburbs of Seattle, but I've had two from Seattle.

AND THEN THIS MORNING I had a missed call at 7 am. They left a voicemail--it was a very distraught sounding woman identifying herself as a Seattle PD officer saying "I need to hear back from you ASAP to verify the location of the accident." No number, no name. First, I called my husband in a panic to make sure he was okay. Then, I called Seattle Police non-emergency to ask about this and the woman I spoke to was very confused--she was not sure why I would receive that kind of message and said "Thanks for letting us know; it might be a scam." She transferred me to Traffic Investigation and I left a message.

I'm just curious if anyone has any idea what this is. Might it be a scam? What would they be looking for? Could it be related to the debt collector calls? Is there a protocol for officers leaving voice mails that these deviate from or reinforce? Why do the cops make it so difficult for me to return the call? If it is a series of accidental calls, how do they end up with my number?

posted by Ideal Impulse to Grab Bag (24 answers total)

Is your phone number the kind of phone number that someone might make up if they were talking to someone and wanted to give a fake number? Like 416-644-4444 or something like that?
posted by Jairus at 10:22 AM on October 30, 2015

This doesn't sound like a scam, because in order for a scam to work, the scammer will definitely want to speak with you as often as possible.

Perhaps you should change your outgoing VM message? To make it clear who you are and how you'd prefer to be reached?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:24 AM on October 30, 2015 [5 favorites]

Why do the cops make it so difficult for me to return the call?
This is the only part I have experience with: when I reported a crime, a detective was assigned to my case. I was given his phone number verbally but it was never left in a message and the caller ID showed up as a generic station switchboard number whether he called from his office or his cell. So I have no clue whether these are legit officers, but it wouldn't be unusual for them to omit their direct line.
posted by kapers at 10:24 AM on October 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

The old owner of the number might still have it in the autofill of his browser settings, or might be giving it out deliberately if he doesn't actually want people to track him down. If he's dodging debt collectors, he probably doesn't want to submit his new number to anything that might attach it to credit reports or public records.
posted by almostmanda at 10:30 AM on October 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

Would there be any downside to you personally of calling the phone company, explaining the situation, and getting them to assign you a new phone number?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:41 AM on October 30, 2015 [10 favorites]

It sounds to me like there could be one person getting into a boatload of trouble, and this person is using your number as a fake number. It sounds like criminal and social problems that bring the attention of the PD and social services, along with debt issues. It's also possible that this person could be using different or similar pseudonyms.

That's just shooting from the hip a bit though, and there could be other possibilities that explain all of those details.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:41 AM on October 30, 2015 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh! And I also just remembered! Might not be related. In July, I had a voicemail when I woke up. Area code was Washington state, but east of the mountains. It was from an extremely upset sounding young woman--she had let a female friend borrow her car, the friend was supposed to be back by 11, and it was now 3 am and no friend or no car. Woman thought she was calling the friend and the message was directed toward her. The woman really appeared to be holding back tears the entire call and said "If I don't hear back from you, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call the police." However, this is, like, the one time I didn't receive a weird police call. This was also well after the calls started, so this woman wasn't the instigator. This is the only time a woman has been the recipient of one of these calls.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 10:43 AM on October 30, 2015

The reason you are receiving these calls may be due to a failure to appreciate the risks involved when you "occasionally received texts that made me suspect the previous owner of the phone was a drug dealer." Bizarre phone calls today could be a SWAT raid tomorrow, but you can contact your phone carrier and get a new number.
posted by Little Dawn at 10:44 AM on October 30, 2015 [5 favorites]

As a follow-up, I think getting a new number would solve most if not all of these (very unnerving) phone calls. We could suss out the why, but my feeling is that it's (perhaps obviously) connected to something shady, and I'd be pretty anxious to separate myself from people making unwarranted and sometimes criminal assumptions about my number.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:48 AM on October 30, 2015 [10 favorites]

Could it be they're just dialing the wrong area code? Washington's got a lot of them.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:00 AM on October 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

If it were me, I would call one of the cops and ask what the heck they want. Explain that it is a wrong number. Ask them to take it out of their file or database.
posted by AugustWest at 11:03 AM on October 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

(The five area codes in Washington don't overlap, so seven-digit dialling is possible throughout the state, which could lead to someone from Tacoma unthinkingly giving just their seven-digit number to Seattle police, then the cops dialing the number as-is and getting the wrong person. Next time someone calls, tell them to make sure the area code matches the address they've got.)
posted by Sys Rq at 11:10 AM on October 30, 2015

Get a new number immediately. This is scary.
posted by jbenben at 11:19 AM on October 30, 2015 [6 favorites]

A person where I work just received a call from an Officer Randomname, who proceeded to demand their name and other details suitable for identity theft. It's probably a similar scam to this one, except it's not tax season.
posted by zamboni at 12:00 PM on October 30, 2015

If there were just one or two callers doing this, you might be able to fix it by calling and telling them it's the wrong number. And it seems likely, since there have been so many calls, that it's an active and ongoing thing where this person is giving your phone number as a fake or maybe even just because they're a ditz.

As such, your best approach is to just consider the number haunted.

Many years ago, I had a woman who was going around town writing fraudulent checks that had my phone number printed on them (which I learned from an actual sympathetic debt collector who believed me somehow). I'd resisted changing my number because it was pretty baked in not only for my work and social contacts, but for my freelancing clients, and trying to contact everyone with some administrative thing like that seemed too daunting. It wouldn't have been nearly as annoying and time consuming as getting repeated sometimes harassing calls from aggressive debt collectors calling to insult me, though.

It is pretty unlikely that your name or address are attached to the number, so if you can at all manage just changing to a new number, it will probably solve your problem pretty neatly. I really wish I'd done the same with my personal criminal much sooner than I did.
posted by ernielundquist at 12:10 PM on October 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I had a lot of calls from men for a while, who had obviously met this hot chick that was giving out my number instead of her own. Once I figured that out- and started letting the (many) guys know this, one actually saw her again!
They texted me her correct number- which was one digit off of mine. I texted her to choose another number to give out please- and she did.
Someone is giving out your number, I would contact Seattle police about it and see if they can't fix it.
posted by TenaciousB at 12:22 PM on October 30, 2015 [4 favorites]

You might consider that if you do opt to try and correct this through the police department, you will literally be calling law enforcement officials who think someone of the criminal element lives at your number and then trying to convince them that you're innocent, really, and can't help or testify about anything, man. That is, you will be offering a speech they hear regularly as part of their day, often from people about whom the exact opposite is true.

I do not know what your experience with police officers is, but I do not personally believe they will find this argument compelling. It may even focus more attention onto you.

Please just get a different number.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:14 PM on October 30, 2015 [7 favorites]

Along with DirtyOldTown's point, I thought maybe the number associated with your phone belonged to someone who was some kind of informant or snitch. Considering how tracking of cell phones and wiretapping by law enforcement is essentially legal, and you're not a criminal, just get a new number.

If you want the police to believe you, maybe have an attorney contact them on your behalf?

You should definitely notify your mobile carrier and have some sort of notation placed on your account. At the very least. And change your number while you are at it.
posted by jbenben at 1:50 PM on October 30, 2015

The police calls sound legit in that they are looking for someone who is involved in sketchy stuff, like the one sounded like a parole officer calling to check in as a last ditch effort. These people are likely all calling for the person/people who had your phone number before. I don't believe they are looking for you AT ALL so you don't have to worry about proving you're not a criminal, etc. They probably just think the person moved without telling them, changed their name on the phone, and now trying to hide out. They likely realize you're not who they're looking for but are trying to make you pressure the old person to get in touch, in any you somehow know him. If there's a true emergency, the police will show up at your house or job. However, you're not the one who they want, fortunately. Unfortunately, you're having to deal with these scary calls.

Like some of the others above, I used to get many debt collectors calling for the woman who previously had my (old) number. I sometimes explained that it was the wrong number, which some believed and some did not (or just didn't care.) The calls declined over the years but did not completely go away. (Ironically, recently I saw the woman's name on the roster of a neighboring community, so I see she really does exist.)

I agree with everyone who has suggested getting a new phone number. It's a pain but worth the effort for your peace of mind. I really believe these creepy calls will stop, and you will feel much better in the day-to-day. After having the same cell number for eight years, I changed mine when I got a new cell and the porting got too complicated. Sure, there are new people who may not have been able to reach me but it's really not been a problem at all. If you have an iPhone, then your contacts are likely saved to the cloud and can be easily ported. Your family/friends/colleagues/clients/etc. will TOTALLY understand and be glad you're feeling better. I wish you luck!
posted by smorgasbord at 3:41 PM on October 30, 2015

Honestly, I would get a new number. If you have a number that was previously used by someone who was doing illegal stuff and they are still getting calls from drug dealers, police, etc., I would just change it. It's easier to do that and tell your friends and family you have a new number than to stop getting these (upsetting) calls from various sources. These aren't scams. You could report it to the police, or just change the number and be done with it. Not worth the hassle.
posted by AppleTurnover at 4:50 PM on October 30, 2015 [3 favorites]

I bet people are transposing the digits, e.g. instead of 1471 thay are dialling 1741, unless you want to spend the next 10 years dealing with this, I would just get a new number.
posted by Lanark at 11:42 AM on October 31, 2015

Like jbenben mentioned, to me the most troubling thing is that you can be physically tracked via your phone. And some people will act first and ask questions later. I'd hate to see you get physically harmed because of mistaken identity, either by cops or drug dealers. I vote you get a new phone number.
posted by MexicanYenta at 12:10 PM on October 31, 2015

Something that occurred to me is that if you're worried about changing your cell number because you might lose out on legitimate calls, you could port your current cell phone number to a Google Voice phone number. Then you'll get emails every time you get a missed call or voicemail, but you don't have to actually get the calls on your cell phone. But for your actual cell phone, you can get a new number. I use a Google Voice number as a backup. It mostly works pretty well and is pretty convenient to have.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:05 PM on October 31, 2015

Change your outgoing message to include the phrase, "If you want a call back, you must leave the full name of the person you are trying to reach and your phone number." If you are okay with having your first name on there, you could start with, "You've reached Brunhilda's phone. No one else can be be reached using this number."
posted by soelo at 12:54 PM on November 2, 2015