Phone scam

The Tufts University Police Department [TUPD] has been investigating reported instances of telephone call scams since this October, according to Sgt. Joseph Tilton. The most recent announcement to the Tufts community regarding these scams, issued jointly by TUPD and Tufts Technology Services, was sent out Feb. 2.

“It’s a scam, a telephone scam and what [the scammers] use is a telephone spoof," he said. "They use local police departments, such as the state police, Medford police, Somerville police [and] Tufts police. When you have it on your caller ID, it looks like a police department head calling you.”

Tilton explained that the fraudulent calls instructed their victims to provide money directly over the phone. The scammers used various explanations to justify the payments, including overdue tax returns.

Tilton speculated that the Tufts online directory supplied the students’ phone numbers to the scammers.

Thus far, only two Tufts students have fallen victim and paid the money, according to Tilton. He noted that these two incidents occurred earlier in the year, when the presence of the scam was not yet widely known.

Although TUPD has received reports of other types of phone scams in previous years, Tilton said that this specific type of scam is new. He added that this scam has not been confined to Tufts students, with reports coming from other universities in the area, such as MIT.

Tilton explained that it will be almost impossible for TUPD or local police to track or potentially apprehend the perpetrators of this scam. Instead, the best solution would be to inform people about the scam, making people less likely to fall for the false information, he said.

“I think what it is is just educating people out there,” Tilton said.