The Bolingbrook Police Department is warning residents about a current trend in scams and provide tips on how to protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Scammers are calling residents from spoofed, or cloned phone numbers pretending to represent local police departments or other government agencies, the police department said in a news release.

The calls show up on caller ID as real phone numbers used by police departments and government agencies, the release said.

The scammers often identify themselves as a police officer or government official and tell the person to make an immediate payment to avoid being arrested, the police department said.

The scammers will ask the person to make payment by providing a credit card number, bank account information, buying gift cards, or by paying them in bitcoin, the release said.

“Police departments and government agencies will not call you to threaten you with arrest if you do not make immediate payment by these means,” the police department said in the release.

If you receive a call like this, you should not comply with any request and hang up immediately and contact the Bolingbrook Police Department at 630-226-8600 to verify the call, police said.

Other ways you can protect yourself from scams:

• If at any time during a phone call you think you’re being scammed, hang up, locate a valid number for who you believe called you, then verify that phone call
• Never open links texted to you from unknown numbers, or email addresses
• Never make payments to anyone asking you to buy gift cards, or deposit money into a BITCOIN ATM.

If you do become the victim of a scam, contact The Bolingbrook Police Department at 630-226-8660 to file a report.