Bloomington, IN- The Indiana State Police Bloomington Post received several complaints today from local citizens reporting a phone scam. ISP receives numerous reports of phone scams each year, but this particular scam has drawn specific attention to the area.

The scammer called local citizens with the Caller ID showing “Indiana State Police” with the “812-332-4411” phone number. The scammer identified himself as an Indiana State Police officer and commenced to tell the citizen that he was the victim of ID theft. The scammer then asked the citizen to go to a local store and obtain a prepaid credit card or gift card; money that would then be used to assist the scammer to clear up this alleged identity theft.

Fortunately, this citizen did not fall victim to this scam, rather he became suspicious and immediately reported the incident to law enforcement.

The Indiana State Police would remind all Hoosiers that these types of phone scammers are pervasive and technically savvy, as was definitely the case here. Scammers will often play on your emotions and fears in order to get to your money.

The easiest way to protect yourself from being scammed over the phone is either to ignore unsolicited calls from unknown callers or just hang up when something doesn’t seem right.

You should NEVER provide any information over the phone to an unknown caller regarding your personal identity, social security number, bank account(s), or credit card number(s).

If in doubt, or if you feel you may have fallen victim to a phone scammer, just hang up and immediately report the incident to your local law enforcement agency.