A recent phone scam that has been making its way across the state has found its way to the Kenai Peninsula, and the Alaska State Troopers are now warning locals to beware of suspicious phone calls from anyone claiming to be with Alaska law enforcement and seeking sensitive information.
A dispatch posted on Monday, Mar. 4 says Alaska State Troopers began taking several calls from persons claiming to be the “AK State Police.” During these calls, individuals were asked for financial information as well as other private, personal information.
According to AST, the fraudulent callers reported claims had been made against the individuals and that Troopers were coming to their houses. Even more disturbing is that complainants reported their caller ID showed 907-262-4453, the Alaska State Trooper’s Dispatch phone number.
“We’ve gotten several calls of it today already,” said AST A Detachment Commander, Cpt. Mike Zweifel in a call with KSRM. “If it goes like it usually does, it’s probably going to be quite a few calls going out there today. We haven’t gotten a call here at the office, but we have had multiple reports of people calling in and on the caller ID it’s showing our phone number.”
The dispatch posted by the Department of Public Safety states, “The Alaska State Troopers will not and do not call persons asking for financial or personal information to settle or address claims or pending cases. We advise people [to] exercise caution and to be vigilant in protecting their personal information.”
Cpt. Zweifel provided some intelligence that Troopers have been able to gather thus far regarding the individuals originating the scam calls. “The caller so far has had a heavy foreign accident accent and they are requesting financial and other private information on the call.”
This is not the first time the Kenai Peninsula–or Alaska at large–has dealt with such a scam. In 2022 peninsula residents reported a spate of phone calls in which scammers impersonated Soldotna Police Officers. Similar to the current reports received by AST, people during the 2022 incident were also receiving calls with a deceptive caller ID. At that time, officials said scammers were using a phone spoofing program to trick caller ID into displaying the Soldotna Police Department’s business line. The scammers would then identify themselves as SPD officers and attempted to convince residents that they need to pay up for outstanding warrants.
In January of this year, a similar scam surfaced in which people across the state reported receiving phone calls from doctor’s offices where scammers attempted to ply them for personal financial and medical information.
Troopers are actively investigating the recent scam calls, but Cpt Zweifel added that he wants to make sure the public is aware of the issue so residents of the Kenai Peninsula are not defrauded by this ongoing scheme. “We just wanna let the public know that those calls are not being made by the Alaska State Troopers and someone is spoofing our number and trying to scam the citizens out of their money.”
AST is asking that anyone who receives one of these suspicious calls address any questions, concerns, or reports to the Alaska State Troopers.
