KITCHENER -- Waterloo regional police are warning the public of fraudsters pretending to be officers in emails and phone calls.
In a tweet, officials said people should stop, pause and think before sending any personal information or money to people.
They added fraudsters will often try to disguise or spoof numbers and emails for financial gain.
Brantford police have received similar reports about scammers. Const. Shane Seibert said one victim realized one call was fraudulent, but was thrown off by a second call that appeared to come from police.
"That individual then advised they were working with the local police agency and the victim shortly thereafter received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Brantford police, calling from our police service's main line," he said.
Seibert said it's a tactic popping up scams across Ontario.
"The suspects were able to clone or spoof the phone number for both the CRA and for the Brantford police, trying to make the phone call seem legitimate," he said.
The scams can be difficult to track.
"We are seeing these are now international crimes and not just something that would happen locally or even within Ontario or Canada," Seibert said.
The scammers often ask the victims to deposit money into an account to prevent arrest.
Seibert said people should look for red flags, like officers not providing their name, badge number or report number.
Police say they do work with companies like Bitcoin to try to recover lost money, but that's not always possible.
