Phone scams targeting Ames residents and ISU students have increased in the past couple weeks, said Ames Police Investigations Commander Geoff Huff.

Using a practice known as “caller ID spoofing,” callers can alter the number that appears on a caller ID display, making the call appear to come from anywhere the scammer wants.

Scammers have claimed to be from the Ames Police Department, the Iowa State Police Department, the university, the IRS and other federal government agencies, demanding money and trying to pressure people into paying them.

“Every day something new comes up,” Huff said. “They will say anything to scare you into making a bad decision under pressure.”

While the callers initially seemed to be targeting international students, Huff said the scammers are now hitting everybody.

Callers make threats regarding financial situations in order to pressure a person into giving the caller money, for example, threatening to cancel utilities, saying a person will be arrested for not paying taxes or not showing up for jury duty or threatening an international student with deportation.

Scammers then ask people to pay to a PayPal account or load money onto a Green Dot card or prepaid credit card. Once the callers have the number on the card, Huff said it is usually impossible to get the money back.

Huff said they called Green Dot right away and tried to freeze the transaction after someone reported giving money to the scammers; however, it was already too late.

“Within a matter of minutes, the money is gone, and then it’s like a cash transaction,” Huff said.

Huff said it is difficult to track back a call when a number is masked. He called a couple of the reported numbers, and they were not from the United States. One caller said he was from the US Treasury Department to collect on debts. When Huff told the caller he was a legitimate law enforcement officer and asked to speak to his supervisor, the caller said he was the only one working at the US Treasury that day.

“The conversation went on for 10 minutes, and he stuck to his story,” Huff said. “They won’t back down.”

If there is a missed call from the Ames Police non-emergency number (515-239-5133) or the ISU Police non-emergency number (515-294-4428), Huff said if it is a legitimate call from the police, they will leave a message.

“If we call looking for you or to give you information, we will leave a message,” he said. “Scammers won’t because they know you won’t be able to get back to them.”

Ames Police is asking people who receive a scam call to not call the police department unless they gave out personal information or gave the callers money. Last week, the dispatch center received around 60 calls about the scams in a couple of hours, making it difficult to take other calls.

Anthony Greiter, community outreach officer for ISU Police, encouraged students not to hand out personal information over the phone.

“If calling the police is the only way you can verify the police are not asking you for money, then contact us,” he said.

Greiter and Huff expect scams to continue.

“Since they seem to be hitting everyone now, I’m hoping that means it’s coming to an end and they have exhausted their resources,” Huff said. “But there will probably be a new scam next week.”

If a scammer claims to be from any level of government, the Federal Trade Commission provides a form to report the call at ftccomplaintassistant.gov.