Scammers Pose As Police, Pastor In Recent Melrose Incidents: Police

MELROSE, MA — Melrose Police have documented at least two recent cases of scam callers identifying themselves as Melrose Police officers before asking victims for money, Lieutenant Paul Norton told Patch on Friday.

In a separate recent incident, someone sent emails posing as a church pastor and asking recipients to buy and send gift cards in response, Norton said.

With one person falling victim to the fake police officer scam in the past week, Norton reminded community members of ways to protect themselves from similar bad actors.

The fake officer scams involved a person calling and sending a text message claiming to be from the Melrose Police Department. The caller, Norton said, is reported to have said the scam target’s identity had been “jeopardized.”

The scam texts have then asked individuals to go to Walmart and send money through the Green Dot system.

“The text message contains several errors that should raise red flags to a person receiving them, such as poor grammar, bad punctuation, and sentence structure,” Norton said.

Norton said that anyone who believes they are being targeted by a scammer should ask the caller for their name and telephone number to allow them to then call the Melrose Police Department and confirm whether the call is authentic.

“Scammers have varied responses, but the potential victim will not be victimized,” Norton said.