SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Dee Mires of Santa Maria got a call on her cell phone Tuesday afternoon. When she answered, there was a man on the other line that said she has a warrant out for her arrest.
"Yes it did really scare me. It really scared me"
What was so strange was that the number on her cell phone showed up as 9-1-1.
"I looked at my phone and it said emergency and it had the cross on it with the 9-1-1 number. And I thought 'who is calling me and why'?"
The man on the other line said he was a California police officer.
The man said "we need to let you know there is a warrant out for your arrest, and there will be someone coming anytime unless you pay some money".
But Dee is no stranger to scam calls. She's received a handful of them over the years, so she didn't buy it.
"I said wait a minute. What's your name? And he said some officer. I said 'what's your badge number', he gave me a badge number. I asked 'what city you are in'? Well then he wouldn't tell me".
Mires hung up and called the real 9-1-1 number. The dispatcher told her it wasn't them that made the call. Santa Maria police say scammers are getting more creative, but they hadn't heard of a 9-1-1 scam before.
"People can manipulate numbers any way they can with the technology they have nowadays" said Santa Maria Sgt. Chris Nartatez.
Dee was more prepared then most people, but said the 9-1-1 on the screen makes a difference.
"The unknown numbers are one thing, but when you get a scammer who uses a fake emergency number, that's pretty bad."
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