Lake Cowichan RCMP says its non-emergency phone number appears to have been spoofed and used to make unsolicited calls.
The detachment has received calls from people saying they were called from the number — 250-749-6668 — but when the phone is answered the caller hangs up. No message is left in the event of a missed call.
Police said this technique of disguising a phone number is typically used by scammers to trick people into answering their phones and trying to build trust with them.
“We want to reassure the public that if someone from the Lake Cowichan RCMP is trying to reach you, we would not hang up when you answer and would leave a message asking you to return our call,” said Sgt. Lita Watson.
“These calls are now directly impacting public ability to reach the Lake Cowichan detachment, and we are hopeful this is not a purposeful or malicious tactic being used to flood our phone lines and tie up resources.
“The Lake Cowichan RCMP has launched a public-mischief investigation and we are actively investigating.”
Anyone receiving a call from 250-749-6668 where no message is left should not call back, police said.