‘Old Scam, With New Twist’

East Hampton Town police issued an alert on their Facebook page this week following an attempt to defraud a local resident. “It’s an old scam with a new twist,” Capt. Chris Anderson said on Tuesday.

The resident, who was not identified, received a text message telling him that an arrest warrant had been issued for him in East Hampton Town Justice Court, said Captain Anderson, but that he could avoid arrest by sending money to satisfy the warrant.

Police emphasized in the alert, which was posted Monday, that they “never make contact via text message, and would never request payments.”

Anyone receiving such a text should not respond, the department advised. Instead, they should call police at 537-7575 and report the text.

In recent months there have been numerous reports of East Hampton residents receiving emails and phone calls from scammers posing as officers of various federal government departments, including the Internal Revenue Service.

The callers, who sometimes go as far as obtaining Washington, D.C., area code phone numbers, tell people that they owe the government money and will be arrested immediately if they do not send it.