We’ve been seeing a number of posts related to people receiving calls from people asking for donations for The National Police Support Fund.
Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises residents to be cautious of phone calls or mailers soliciting donations to the National Police Support Fund, an organization that describes itself as a grassroots movement of Americans united to support their political action activities.
from the BBB website
A BBB investigation has been unable to determine who is behind the National Police Support Fund or details on how the group intends to spend its donations.
Update from the HPD: 4/11
Hawaii Island Police want to warn the public of a scam involving an anonymous caller soliciting funds for the Hawaii Police Department.
The most recent phone number is identified as 808-755-9285, but is a spoof number used to prevent detection.
The Hawaii Police Department does not practice solicitation of funds from the public, or solicit funds on behalf of any law enforcement agency.
The public is reminded to practice these simple rules to prevent being a victim of a telephone scam;
- Don’t give out any personal information, either by phone, text or email.
- Do online searches and search phone numbers when appropriate
- Don’t believe your caller ID, criminals can trick you to believe that it is a valid number
- Never pay anyone upfront or give out your credit card information to anyone over the phone
- Consider how they are presenting the solicitation to you, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is
- Talk to someone before you ever give up your information or money to anyone or any business or agency
- Hang Up on “Robocalls”, never press any numbers as asked
Call the police at 935-3311 or CrimeStoppers at 961-83000 to report suspicious calls or report criminal activity related to phone scams to your police department.