The families of six student-athletes at Boston University received phone calls from scammers posing as police officers requesting money early Friday morning, according to an alert from the school's police department.
In each of the cases, an unidentified caller claiming to be a member of the university's police department contacted the student-athlete's parents around 1:30 a.m. Friday morning, BU police said.
The caller claimed the student had been arrested and requested the parents pay a fee using an online payment app for costs related to the arrests, police said. They didn't say whether or not any of the parents paid the requested fees.
Boston University police requested that any member of the university who believes they are a victim of this scam or a similar one and who is on campus contact them at 617-353-2121 or abuse@bu.edu. Possible victims off campus should call 911.
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The identity of the caller or callers was unclear, though this type of scam — called an arrest scam — has become more common in recent years, leading to warnings from authorities.
Calls in arrest scams often seem legitimate, the U.S. Marshals and the FBI have said. Scammers often spoof law enforcement phone numbers, meaning it appears the call is coming from a law enforcement agency, and give the names of real U.S. Marshals, false badge numbers, case numbers and other identifying information.
The scammer will likely claim to have a warrant for the target's arrest and offer the option to pay a fine in the form of Bitcoin in lieu of being taken into custody, the authorities said. They recommended that people who think they're being scammed should locate the agencies' numbers on their own and call them to determine the validity of the call.
Local, state and federal authorities often note in such scam warnings that they don't ask for money to resolve incidents.
