Phone scam impersonating police ‘rearing its ugly head’ in Gastonia
A Gastonia resident received an unexpected call early Wednesday morning.
It was from a familiar number with a 704 area code. The caller left a voicemail, introducing themself as “Sergeant Shane Johnson” — a police officer who retired a couple months ago. They said their office was located at 420 W. Franklin Blvd.
Then, they asked for other pieces of official information. The caller said a subpoena was being issued, and they needed personal information, including full names.
The resident realized something wasn’t right.
They called the Gastonia Police Department to verify the information and found what the caller had suspected — it was a phone scam. Many individuals have been receiving the same call — spoof number, impersonation and all. Gastonia Police Department public information officer Bill McGinty said three people have reported it to the police in the last week.
“There’s scam artists trying to shake people down, using law enforcement or the courts as an intimidation factor,” McGinty said. “And we wanted to make people aware of the scam (and) that it has resurfaced.”
McGinty said no one so far has given away money or personal information in Gastonia. They knew what was happening. The call recipients were exposed to an increasingly popular scam, targeting the elderly or more vulnerable populations.
It’s become so popular that McGinty suspects a lot of people have their guard up.
“It’s a scam that rears its head probably a couple times a year,” McGinty said.
With a lot of the police station’s information online, McGinty said it’s easy for scammers to spoof numbers and find information to pose as the police. Since these scams happen in other countries, they are often hard to track, investigate and shut down.
The Gastonia Police Department has resorted to using social media as the best way to reach people. In McGinty’s words, social media gets “a lot of eyeballs.” After the incident was reported, the police department posted on Facebook and X as part of its public awareness campaign.
McGinty thinks it will only get worse as the holidays approach and people become more charitable.
“We just want people to be on guard,” McGinty said. “That if you get a call like this, certainly don’t share any information and hang up.”
His suggestion to avoid these scams is to do what the recipient of the call did on Wednesday morning: End the call.
Call the police department or the entity directly. Verify the truth.
