Beware: Fraudulent "Somerville Police Department Charity" phone calls!

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

Just an FYI and warning to all, we got a call today from someone claiming to be with the SPD asking whether we were interested in joining in their fundraiser. Apparently, we were supposed to write a check, and they would come pick it up. Our bull-sh*t detector went way off the charts, and we told them no way, but decided to email our alderman to give him the heads-up.

He got back to us right away and said that he also got the call, and checked it out with the SPD, who said it wasn't them. So, since I haven't seen anything about this in the Journal or "News", I thought I'd at least put it out on the wire here. FYI, the call shows up on caller ID as "Unknown" which was our first tip-off that it wasn't legitimate.

PS- I'm not sure how to tag this, suggestions welcome!

Comments

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

True. I didn't get as far as "who should I make that check out to?" because it was all fishy to me and I generally am in a bad mood when telemarketers of any kind call (I only answer to tell them to take me off their list). Of course, in hindsight, I had all sorts of clever questions in my head to find out how legit it was, but nothing came out at the time.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Well, the SPD does use this very sketchy approach. I always guessed it hasn't changed from decades ago when it was a different time and it wouldn't be viewed as sketchy. And I agree with those who find it aggressive and annoying as well as doubt the need.