Gift-card scammers are using real Burnsville police names

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·3 min read
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Burnsville police are alerting the public of a ruse in which scammers are calling metro-area residents and impersonating actual police sergeants in an attempt to get money from prepaid gift cards.

Police say that over the past week they’ve received at least 10 reports of scammers who’ve reached or left messages with people after using the names of two sergeants. Police believe other cases have gone unreported.

Investigators are aware of two people who have fallen victim to the scam: One lost around $11,000, the other $8,000.

The police impersonation scam is not new, as it has played out across the U.S. and locally in recent years. Minneapolis police, St. Cloud police and Hennepin County sheriff’s office have notified the public of similar scams.

But it’s a first for Burnsville police, said Sgt. Shaun Anselment, whose name has been used in nine of the calls. In most cases, he said, the scammers have targeted people employed in the medical field.

“These telephone scams are not new,” he said. “They just change the tactic. It’s frustrating because unfortunately we’ve had a couple people fall for it.”

Anselment said the scheme has gone like this:

The scammers have told the victims or possible victims they have information on a “confidential matter.” They went on to say they missed court hearings and now need to pay fines and fees using prepaid gift cards.

The scammers instructed the victims to buy gift cards. After doing so, the victims then gave the scammers the numbers off the gift cards, allowing them to access the funds immediately.

Anselment said the scammers most likely pulled his name and that of his co-worker Sgt. Dan Anderson off the city’s website or someplace else. “Anderson, then mine, so I don’t know if they’re going in alphabetical order off our [police department] roster or what,” he said.

The scammers have used “spoof” telephone numbers with local area codes in a further attempt to deceive people, he said.

Anselment said he was alerted to the scam after the wife of a former coworker got a voicemail from one of the fraudsters, claiming to be him. “She said, ‘Did you just call me?’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t call you.’ I listened to the voicemail and it sounded nothing like me,” he said.

The scammer left a call-back number, and Anselment said when he called it he got a voicemail from a man that claimed it was the Burnsville Police Department. “It didn’t sound professional at all,” he said. “It was very hokey.”

Investigators are following up on leads, but Anselment said telephone scammers are difficult to track and hold accountable because they generally are from other states or countries.

And the work is labor-intensive for investigators, who have to seek warrants on telephone numbers and try to track the gift cards to the companies the scammers used. “It’s going to take quite some time, because it’s all electronic,” he said.

Burnsville police are urging people who get the calls not to return them — and to call the actual department instead.

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