Police have issued a fresh warning about phone scammers who fake their caller ID so a call looks like it is coming from a real police station. In two separate waves of calls in late June, victims were told they were under investigation for a crime and pressured to hand over personal details, and in some cases to pay a supposed debt using gift cards.
The trick works because the number on your screen looks legitimate. As police put it, scammers can easily modify caller ID to make a call appear genuine. The same impersonation game is playing out online: a fake Perplexity AI browser extension was recently caught in the Chrome Web Store quietly harvesting users’ searches and browsing data by copying a trusted brand name. Whether it is a phone call or a piece of software, the con relies on one thing: you trusting a familiar name at face value.
For a small business, this is a real risk. Your staff answer the phone, take payments, and install browser tools every day. A convincing caller claiming to be police, the tax office, or a supplier can rush an employee into a costly mistake.
Three practical takeaways
- Never trust caller ID. A familiar number or name proves nothing. Hang up and call back on a number you looked up yourself.
- Slow down under pressure. Scammers manufacture fear and urgency. Legitimate agencies do not call out of the blue and accuse you of a crime, and they never ask for gift cards.
- Lock down browsers and devices. Only install extensions from verified publishers, review what staff have added, and remove anything you cannot account for.
A short team briefing and a simple “verify before you act” rule can stop most of these scams before they cost you money or data.
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