Scammers have been impersonating Philly police, demanding money. Here’s what to look out for.

South Philly resident Cristina Tessaro started her Tuesday thinking there was a warrant out for her arrest for failing to appear as a witness in court.

A man who identified himself as Sgt. Holtz called her around 10 a.m. Her caller ID said the call was from (215) 686-3390, which is the number for the Philadelphia Police 39th District. The caller told Tessaro that she was scheduled to appear in court Monday and that she had signed for a subpoena regarding the matter on Feb. 3, something she definitely would have remembered doing.

Tessaro, 42, was told that in order to verify she hadn’t been the one to receive the subpoena, she’d have to go to her local precinct to verify her signature. While there was a mention of how Tessaro would have to act as her own “bail bondsman,” Holtz hadn’t asked for money directly.

“I was just completely shaking at this point and then the phone call got disconnected,” said Tessaro, who was taking notes and asking questions.

When she called the number back, an actual Philadelphia police officer at the 39th District told her it was a scam that had been running for about two weeks. In Tessaro’s case, the scammers never got to make their ask, presumably because she kept pushing for additional details regarding the case, subpoena, and warrant.

According to the 39th District, it received about a dozen calls in one day from people who were targets of the scam about two weeks ago. The scammers have been spoofing the precinct’s number, essentially falsifying the information that pops up on the target’s caller ID to mirror the 39th’s phone line. To the department’s knowledge, this is the only Philadelphia police number being spoofed, though scammers have impersonated other law enforcement agencies around the region in recent years.

It appears the ask for money comes after the “bail bondsman” section of the script. The people posing as officers ask their targets to pay the bond in gift cards, said Philadelphia police. One woman told NBC10 she was asked to pay $8,000 in a Bitcoin account.

“The Philadelphia Police Department does not call individuals who are in wanted status. Warrant services are done in person,” said a police department spokesperson. “Additionally, the Philadelphia Police Department will never inform someone that the way to get a warrant dropped would be to pay in gift cards.”

Tessaro considers herself to be pretty savvy. She hits ignore on the E-ZPass text scams, demanding outstanding toll fines, same with UPS texts with suspicious links. But this call was especially alarming because it featured a real number and the scammers knew her personal details. What’s more, the messengers bombarded her with just enough information to sound legitimate and kept her on the phone by saying they would not be able to talk to her further if she chose to get a lawyer.

The police department said it would never ask for money over the phone and should anyone get an unexpected call from the police, their best bet is to hang up and call the district directly.

Tessaro is grateful she was able to quickly rid herself of the scammers, who did end up calling her back, only to hang up when she called them out with what police had told her. Still, she hopes to warn others.

“I really don’t want anybody to fall for the scam,” she said. “I don’t know what their like end game was, but I never would want anybody to reach that end game.”