The Illinois State Police (ISP) is warning the public of a new phone scam claiming to be an investigator and telling them that their identity has been stolen. ISP agents will not make cold calls to people requesting personal or financial information. They also won’t ask you to confirm personal or financial information.
If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be an ISP investigator, ask for their name, badge number, and phone number, and then hang up. You should never provide or confirm personal or financial information over the phone to an unknown caller. You can contact one of the seven investigative regions throughout the state to verify if the caller is an ISP Agent on the ISP website.
If you have given personal or financial information to a caller or think someone may have stolen your identity, ISP recommends contacting each of the three credit bureaus to put a free security freeze on your credit. This will prevent someone from opening credit in your name.
- https://www.equifax.com/
personal/credit-report- services/credit-freeze/ - https://www.experian.com/
freeze/center.html - https://www.transunion.com/
credit-freeze
You can also call the Illinois Attorney General’s Identity Theft Hotline at 1-866-999-5630 (7-1-1 relay service). You will be assigned a Consumer Advocate to guide you through the recovery process.
