The Cambridge Police Department wants to make local businesses aware of a counterfeit money scheme involving a spoofed Cambridge Police phone number that recently victimized two businesses of thousands of dollars.
In both cases, employees of local Cambridge businesses were called by a suspect claiming to be Lieutenant Lockley of the Cambridge Police Department. The suspect alleged that they were investigating a counterfeit money scheme. The caller identification displayed “Cambridge Police” and the phone number “617-349-3300,” the actual non-emergency business number for the Cambridge Police Department that was determined to be spoofed by the suspect(s).
The suspect(s) instructed the employees to collect all of the available cash currently in their businesses, as the cash needed to be investigated for counterfeit activity. Both employees were then informed that the business’ bank account had been frozen due to a counterfeiting issue and to unfreeze it, the cash had to be converted into gift cards. Green Dot MoneyPak and Amazon gift cards were purchased by the employees at various local stores, where the cards are available. PIN numbers associated with the cards were then provided over the phone to the suspect(s), allowing the suspect(s) to anonymously extract the value from the cards without being identified. Both businesses then reported this activity to the Cambridge Police Department and an investigation into both incidents remains ongoing.
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