Recently, the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) has been made aware of fraudulent calls being made to residents which appear to be coming from the Service’s non-emergency telephone number (905-825-4777). Referred to as spoofing, a caller on Canadian telephone systems can easily make a call appear from any number. Fraudsters will do this in order to hide the true origin of the call.
At this time, we are aware of only three incidents of the Service’s non-emergency telephone number being used for fraudulent representation, all of which were reported to the HRPS Fraud Intake Unit on April 6, 2018. On at least one of these occasions, the caller purported to be “police” to the person receiving the call.
Please note that there are NO circumstances in which you can legitimately be contacted by the Halton Regional Police Service with an originating number displaying on your caller i.d. as 905-825-4777.
Outgoing calls from HRPS landline telephones will never be displayed as 905-825-4777.
This spoofing activity does not represent a data breach, nor does it represent a records information breach. Any and all personal information on file with our Service is secure, and the protection of this information remains our highest priority.
Steps taken to halt fraudulent calls:
- The HRPS Information Technology Unit has initiated an investigation into this spoofing activity and is utilizing both internal and external resources.
- Additionally, the HRPS Fraud Intake Unit is working closely with the HRPS Cyber Crime Unit to gather forensic information about this activity.
If You Receive a Call Identifying as 905-825-4777:
Do not provide information to anyone contacting you from caller i.d. 905-825-4777.
We appreciate your patience while we work with our telecommunications provider to resolve this situation of fraudulent calls.
Tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers "See Something? Hear Something? Know Something? Contact Crime Stoppers" at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca