jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
When Evelyn Johnson received two phone calls that immediately hung up in a short time span Monday night, she feared she and her husband were being targeted for a robbery.
She said she was “mad as heck” after receiving a phone call at 12:22 a.m. from 403-502-2222 and then at 12:49 a.m. from 403-527-2222.
“My husband, the first thing he said was, ‘Is somebody phoning to see if we’re home?’ What was on his mind is someone’s calling and if we’re not home they’ll break in,” Johnson said.
“That kind of wore on me for a while until I fell asleep again. You just don’t know when you get two calls in succession and they’re almost identical, it makes you wonder.”
The Redcliff RCMP says it received numerous complaints of similar “spoofed” phone calls Monday night, coming from various phone numbers including the ones Johnson received, as well as from 403-548-2222 – the Redcliff RCMP’s own number.
Barry Eirich of Redcliff was awoken around 1:15 a.m. with one of these calls that said it was from the police, which he described as a “not very pleasant” experience.
He tried to phone the RCMP back but says he “didn’t get much results at all.”
Redcliff RCMP Cpl. Alan Rivard told the News they’re unable to determine the origin of these calls, including those purporting to come from the police.
“The people who have spoofed our number could be basically anywhere in the world,” he said. “We’re not able to confirm the location.”
According to Rivard, Red Deer residents a couple of weeks ago were targeted by spoof calls alleging to be from their RCMP detachment.
The Redcliff detachment has reached out to TELUS for assistance, but they’re also at a dead end as of press time.
“If people are using it from an app on the internet, their location is anonymous,” Rivard explained, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
The possible motivation for the calling spree is similarly obscure, he said.
“There’s no indication that they’re getting anything from it, so the reason that they’re doing it is unknown to us at this time,” said Rivard.
He says there’s not much one can do to guard against these hoax phone calls, but there are ways to determine if a call from a police number is legitimate or not.
“Any time the RCMP or any other police service needs to contact them urgently, then typically we’ll either attend their residence or we’ll leave a message for them on their voicemail,” Rivard said.
