Got a two calls today, 30 sec. between, same voice, implying he was law enforcement and they had collected my number and IP address from a bust of a “forced prostitution” ring (operation?, service?, I don’t remember).

First call was cut short; the second one ended with “turn yourself into your local law enforcement." Me: “Sir, yes sir, I’ll get right on it.” P'shaw. Clearly they have no idea who I am or where I live. Some facts:

1.     Calls were less than a minute total; same voice; demeanor of caller was LE although didn’t identify as such
2.     Calls were received on my burner phone’s carrier number (not an app); it's about 6 mo. old
3.     Calls were placed from two spoofed phone numbers: first was from a Wash DC municipal services; the other was MY number, i.e., the one I answered on (I didn't recognize it, grrr)
4.     Phone is only used in DC (I use different burners for different major cities)
5.     In DC, over the past 6 months I've used every type of service, save for SW.
6.     Phone is rarely, if ever, connected to WiFi (“we have your IP address”??)
7.     Last week I verified with a new agency, in DC, my first new verification in more than a year

I did my best to provide enough info here without going overboard. Curiously, but definitely not related, it’s only DC where I use TER, and then only recently. New to TER, new agency. Like I said, I think it’s only coincidence, but it obviously has me thinking.

Any thoughts? Anybody from DC know of any recent busts?  

(it's taken a long time to post, during which i found the regional boards. i'm leaving it here because the local aspect is not as important as knowing whether these calls fit a known pattern.)

I've hobbied for 20+ yrs and never had anything like that happen to me .

 
Could be a prank. Could be ex bf / ex pimp of a girl you just saw recently. I doubt authentic LE would play such mind games.  

 
How much personal info do the agencies, independents have on you would make a huge difference.. I hope you haven't divulged too much about yourself.. Also, who are you in society would make a huge difference. Are you employed with Security Clearance like lot of DC folk ?. Are you in Government, or are you self employed or retired.. Do you have wife to worry about? Do you have kids whose custody you might lose if you get divorced and then end up paying child support on top of that.  

 
These are some of the questions you need to think about ! You don't have to tell us anything.. Just something for you to think about.. Prostitution in and of itself is not all that serious anymore. Local govt is loosening on cracking down on Johns and Hookers, but if the word gets out, there still can be serious consequences. Again, depends on who you are in society.

-- Modified on 5/7/2022 8:33:28 AM

Somebody is playing a prank on you

Which agency recently verified you and what information did you provide?  Surely not LEO, but probably a shake down.  

If a device connects to the Internet then it has an IP address. Doesn't matter whether it's connected via wifi or mobile network.

It's a scam. "Turn yourself into local LE"?? Really. That's ridiculous unless you have an active arrest warrant, and that seems very doubtful because I'm sure you would have been told that.

college prank to me.  Maybe somebody's pledging a fraternity.  The fact that they want you to turn yourself in suggests this to me because that is how they would measure if it was successful or not without having to meet you personally.  Once the pledge gets two or three guys to turn themselves in, he passes the hazing.  

 
 Having your name in a provider's  or agency's phone book is not enough to charge you with anything.  Unless it's a REALLY slow day at the precinct, I can't imagine any cop wasting their time on a fishing expedition like this.  I would ignore it.  

Take the 5th.

LE doesn't give away that they intend to arrest you -- since many people will disappear.  When they come for you, they COME for you.
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I was in DC for tourism a few years back.  My cellphone started getting strange calls.  I'm pretty sure there are all sorts of intelligence agencies from around the world intercepting cellphone calls.
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A more typical scam is where they give you a chance to pay a fine to avoid arrest.  This one doesn't seem to have that element.

If I ever get a call from someone claiming to be LE (and I have), I'd ask them if they have a piece of paper handy to write down the address of my current location, and then I'd tell them to stop talking about it and come get me right now. When I did field a call from someone claiming to be LE and I did just as I described, there was silence on the other end, I followed up with "come on you piece of shit, come on over here right now, I'll be here for the next few hours". That piece of shit (and calling him that was an insult to shit), told me initially that if I didn't pay $$$ he was going to come arrest me.

 Any and all LE are not going to call you (as someone in this string previously posted), they are simply going to come arrest you. And guess what, if you haven't done anything wrong, no one is coming to arrest you. Call their bluff.

I made a correction, see below: it wasn't "turn yourself in" as much as it was "go in to discuss."
 
As for the IP address, for those who look at threads like this for nuggets on staying safe, the only ones they could have are for the cell towers I've connected to. I can live with that. However, the phone is now dead to me.
 
They would really have to want me bad to invest the type of money to track me closer and use info about the phone to do that and I think that's unlikely. However, spending $50 (or 20 if I go flip), and the inconvenience of buying and configuring a new phone are well worth the added sense of separation from the incident. My personal and work phones have never been used for this "hobby" or porn or anything like that. I don't use them to check my burner phones, either. When it became more practical, I even stopped using them for dating apps. Keep you personal phones clean!
 
And one last but important thing for me to remind myself: don't break your own rules! I answered the phone with no advance reason. If I don't have reason to expect a call, I don't answer. I was way off the beam with travel lag when all this happened.

A few hours after I posted this, I remembered something that to me is important: his actual parting words were more like: "We're looking for your assistance in this matter. Go to your local police station to discuss." It definitely was not "turn yourself in." Sorry about that.
   
It pisses me off I wasn't more alert when he called and I can't quote him verbatim. Travel takes more out of me than it used to whether I'm going east or west. He also actually asked me a question that of course I don't remember. I only remember thinking "tell him nothing." I was too tired to be wholly unnerved, but it did set me on my heels. After my fumbling he told me the above and hung up.
   
I agree with all of you who don't think this was purely random. In my mind, there is a certain feeling of legitimacy to the call. However, counting BIGLY against it being legit are:
* Spoofed ANIs
* No personal introduction

There are some additional things counting against it and even some counting for it being LE, but this would get too wordy.  

That said, and as we all agree so far, this is a highly unusual occurrence that the details of which make me discount any random explanation. I believe whomever called did so with accurate info about my contacting an agency. It was not a call from some 300 lb 30 yo from his mothers basement.
 
I'll update this thread from my cell if something comes up. :/
 
You do the same, please. Update me if you think of / remember something. Thanks for your feedback. Stay safe.

If LE really wants to speak to you, the person you spoke to would have said to come in and speak to him, or someone else by telling you a name.   If you just pop in and say that someone told you to come in and report on something, the desk sergeant wouldn't know who to direct you to.

 
That way you could call ahead first and ask if the person was actually in and available when you come in.

 
I wouldn't come in without a lawyer either.

If LE wanted to talk to me, they would have 1. called from an work phone, 2. introduced themselves, and 3. given me some sort of reference number for the case. HIGHLY unlikely this was LE, but I have little doubt that somebody really does have info linking that phone to an agency/girl.  
 
It very probably was an agency who are pissed because they think I left one of their girls a bad review. Or they may have me confused with somebody who otherwise actually fucked them over. This is how I'm leaning, I think it's an unprofessional agency who are pissing into the wind because some event has caused them to act irrationally.
 
Of course, it could be an independent who I wrote a bad review for and in a drunken rage is harassing everybody who she thinks ever wronged her. LOL. Hmm, this is sounding more like it the more I think of it.
 
Two things I'm pretty sure of: It's not LE and it's somebody who actually has info linking my former phone to this industry.

First of all, If any LE tries to bust you......They will never call you on your phone.  They'll get your address and bust you there (Face to Face).  And Secondly when they bust you.......they have to announce themselves.

I’ve received irs or fbi calls demanding money. It was obviously from a call center in India.   I asked if they were from the Mumbai field office ? They hung up

There are so many scams out there, it's hard to tell who this contact really came from ,or the motive behind it.
Shut down the burner  phone you get the call on for a couple months.  
Bear in mind that incidents do happen with some providers than can trigger an LE investigation ,and your number may be in her phone.

Several years back; I had what I thought was just an ordinary client. Little did I know that he was part of law enforcement in one way or another.  He came in as any client did a received services just like any other client did, but he did not pay (He Claimed that he did not have the money and was going to call the police and report me). Within 5 minutes to 2 hours later. I had uncover  cops banging on my door (Wanting to talking to me about what had happened between the guy and me). I informed those undercover cops that I was a "SWINGER" and was not a "PROSTITUTE". Therefore, I was not doing anything wrong. It's not like the guy and I talked about price. And I told the cops to go ahead and arrest me (It was the guy's word against mine). The Police had no hard physical proof that I was Escorting.

And from the sounds of this: "he did not pay," NO MONEY CHANGED HANDS = no payment for sex = no prostitution (or whatever they wanted to call it.  
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If the undercover cop paid with marked bills and asked you for a signed and dated receipt and you gave him one, THEN they'd have a case.

"And from the sounds of this: "he did not pay," NO MONEY CHANGED HANDS = no payment for sex = no prostitution (or whatever they wanted to call it."

 
That is state dependent.

Haven't had anyone claiming to be LE, but did have one scammer claiming to MS-13. They wanted me to pay for wasting their girls time. They claimed to have "all my information" and threatened my life and the lives of my family.  What family, dumbass? 🤣

Whoops! Thanks for the amendment!