Possible phone scam foiled after woman, 80, calls BPD

A prank phone call, identified by police as a possible scam, was foiled after the recipient of the call, an 80-year-old woman, contacted the Bloomington Police
Department.

The victim told police she received a call Tuesday morning from a man claiming to contact her as part of an investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration, BPD Lt. Steve Kellams said.

The woman reported difficulty understanding the man, whom she said had an accent. After several moments on the phone, the woman told the man she couldn’t understand what he was saying but that he was welcome to come to her residence so the two could speak in person, Kellams said.

However, the woman told police she refused to give the caller her address and instead hung up.

The man called the woman again, whom she said was audibly upset. The caller explained because she hung up on a federal agent, he was going to come arrest her.
He also warned her she needed to call her attorney, Kellams said.

The woman called BPD at about 12:20 p.m. Tuesday to report the string of phone calls. She also told police she tried to call the phone number that had reached her previously, but she received a recorded answering machine message indicating she had reached the Drug Enforcement Administration of Madison, Ohio.

Kellams said the Drug Enforcement Administration, a federal law enforcement agency, does not have a division in Madison, Ohio, a small town of about 3,000 people. The call was most certainly a prank, he said, and could possibly have been a scam.

— Kirsten Clark