San Joaquin County residents have been getting phone calls recently from people posing as area law enforcement officers attempting to get money from unsuspecting residents.

And the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office wants you to know that that it’s a scam.

Earlier this week, the agency issued guidance for residents to remind them that legitimate law enforcement operations will never contact people by phone to inform them that they have a warrant out for their arrest — they would rather notify you about that in person — and will never solicit money from the people that they contact.

Those that have fallen victim to the scam may have legitimately thought they were dealing with law enforcement — the scammers have gone so far as to use tools to “spoof” the phone number of actual law enforcement agencies to trick people into believing that they’re legitimate.

Those who are contacted and believe that they may be a target of the scam are encouraged to hang up and contact the law enforcement agency directly before revealing any information that may be used by the scammers.

The agency also wants people to know that scammers will usually try to keep their callers on the phone, so if when attempting to hang up the other person pushes back against that, they’re usually being targeted — and the same goes for any caller that encourages to keep the information they share a secret, or they ask to meet in a strange place like a parking lot, or a garage.

And advancements in technology are making it even harder to identify the scammers.

While there have been no reports of this happening locally, some scammers are now using artificial intelligence to spoof people’s voices to make the calls sound more realistic and authentic — which, when coupled with a Caller ID reading that shows the agency phone number, makes it harder for people to identify when they are getting scammed.

Anybody who feels that they may have been the target of a scam are encouraged to contact their local law enforcement agency with any information that may be pertinent to investors. The Federal Trade Commission — which can be reached by visiting www.ftc.gov-0 — also has a section of its website identifying known scamming techniques and a form that those that have been targeted can fill out for tracking purposes.

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.