The Evanston Police Department distributed a news release Monday to warn residents of an arrest warrant scam perpetrated by a “spoofed” number.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, four residents had reported the scam to EPD. The residents said the person on the other end of the phone claimed to be EPD Sgt. Joe Bush and told them that there is a warrant for their arrest for missing a jury summons, according to the news release.

The caller requests $2,500 and tells the receiver to go to the bank and get cash. The caller then instructs the receiver to put the money on a Reloadit card from Office Depot and provide the card number in order to obtain the money from it.

In one of the cases, the caller received the money via the Reloadit card. In all instances today, the caller appeared to be “legitimate” because the caller spoofed the caller ID to show that it was coming from EPD’s non-emergency number, according to the release.

EPD has instructed citizens who receive “suspicious” calls to ask for the name of the caller, hang up, then report the incident to the police.

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