These days, scams are everywhere.

When the word ‘scam’ comes to mind, it’s not too far-fetched to say what pops first is a suspicious email, or maybe even a badly worded text.

But every now and then though comes a reminder that there are still many tricks out there at play—and some even involve even ‘law enforcement’.

One driver shared his alarming experience of being pulled over by what seemed to be criminals pretending to be police officers.

The motorist, who's from Melbourne's southeastern suburbs, shared on social media that they'd been pulled over by someone pretending to be a police officer on Tuesday night who demanded they ‘pay up’.

The driver said they first noticed a vehicle with a blue flashing light—similar to those used on police cars—before he got pulled over by them on the evening of Tuesday, 31 October.

The driver posted on social media dashcam footage of the car impersonating a police car. Credit: Reddit

The driver’s dashcam footage confirmed his claim, as it showed a mysterious car driving past them while its internal police siren activated. After a while, the car crossed to the opposite side of the road.

However, the driver said they knew that something wasn't quite right when they got a closer look at the 'uniform' the person was wearing, as well as the car they were driving—an MG ZS, which is certainly not the typical vehicle of choice for unmarked police cars.

After the suspicious incident, the driver took this to social media.

'Fake cop in Hampton Park. Got pulled over. Told me to pay up for a completely random thing,' he said.

He also said that he got more suspicious when he noticed the uniform worn by the impostor police officer ‘wasn’t even proper’. Their car—an MG ZS car—was not typically used as an unmarked car.

But in the video, the make and model of the car weren’t identifiable.

The driver immediately reported the activity to Victoria Police. However, the police said they had 'no record' of the incident.

The comment thread soon filled up with people sympathising with and sharing advice for the driver.

One user said, ‘Definitely not a cop car.’

'Not something cops drive, so good on you for reporting it, people that impersonate cops are dangerous creeps often,' another wrote.

Others were sceptical and questioned why no dashcam footage of the car pulling them over was shown.

In Victoria, impersonating law enforcement carries 120 penalty units, approximately $23,077.20, or even a year's imprisonment. This is also an offence in other places in the country.

In a similar story, an online scam happened recently where scammers pretended to be a delivery company by texting people to head to a website to receive their parcel.

However, the website was a phishing website where they would steal people’s information. Read more about the story here.

Key Takeaways

• A Melbourne driver claimed to have been pulled over by a 'fake' police officer, who demanded fine payment.
• The driver shared dashcam footage of the ordeal and reported the incident to police.
• However, Victoria Police reportedly did not know about the incident.

What do you think about this story? Have you ever experienced a similar situation like this? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[Gsr]

Many years ago my daughter and I were followed one night in a quiet town area by a car that flashed red and blue lights. We stopped and the car stopped and nothing happened so we drove off. Minutes later the car was behind us again flashing the lights, we stopped again and the car drove around us and kept going. I then followed the car, it went around a few streets and drove into a driveway, I drove right in behind it, took down the rego number, address where it was parked. I went to my sisters nearby house and called the police, who went around and despite the young person denying he did anything they asked him and his father to go to the police station for a “chat”. The police rang me a couple of days later and advised the young person was given a good talking to and an official warning and advised if he was reported doing it again he would be summonsed to court over it. The father was less than impressed with the son as well. Lesson well learnt I hope. Not sure these days whether I would feel safe enough to follow someone home with all the “mentally unstable” out there.

 

[Jennie]

Many years ago my daughter and I were followed one night in a quiet town area by a car that flashed red and blue lights. We stopped and the car stopped and nothing happened so we drove off. Minutes later the car was behind us again flashing the lights, we stopped again and the car drove around us and kept going. I then followed the car, it went around a few streets and drove into a driveway, I drove right in behind it, took down the rego number, address where it was parked. I went to my sisters nearby house and called the police, who went around and despite the young person denying he did anything they asked him and his father to go to the police station for a “chat”. The police rang me a couple of days later and advised the young person was given a good talking to and an official warning and advised if he was reported doing it again he would be summonsed to court over it. The father was less than impressed with the son as well. Lesson well learnt I hope. Not sure these days whether I would feel safe enough to follow someone home with all the “mentally unstable” out there.

Don't think I would either, too many nut jobs out there. Drugs and or drink are dangerous.

 

[marni]

Many years ago my daughter and I were followed one night in a quiet town area by a car that flashed red and blue lights. We stopped and the car stopped and nothing happened so we drove off. Minutes later the car was behind us again flashing the lights, we stopped again and the car drove around us and kept going. I then followed the car, it went around a few streets and drove into a driveway, I drove right in behind it, took down the rego number, address where it was parked. I went to my sisters nearby house and called the police, who went around and despite the young person denying he did anything they asked him and his father to go to the police station for a “chat”. The police rang me a couple of days later and advised the young person was given a good talking to and an official warning and advised if he was reported doing it again he would be summonsed to court over it. The father was less than impressed with the son as well. Lesson well learnt I hope. Not sure these days whether I would feel safe enough to follow someone home with all the “mentally unstable” out there.

and these days the father would back up his so. as "he was a good boy". No one takes any personal responsibility