GUILDERLAND — A town resident received a phone call on May 11 that purported to be from the Guilderland Police Department, stating that there was a warrant for his arrest, Chief Carol Lawlor announced in a press release.

The caller ID information displayed the name “Guilderland Police” and the department’s real telephone number.

The practice is known as caller-ID spoofing.

The caller-ID feature, as reported by The Enterprise in February when the Altamont Fire Department was “spoofed,” can be manipulated by spoofers who then masquerade as representatives of banks, creditors, insurance companies, or even the government.

According to the Federal Communications Commission: “Spoofing occurs when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Spoofing is often used as part of an attempt to trick someone into giving away valuable personal information so it can be used in fraudulent activity or sold illegally. U.S. law and FCC rules prohibit most types of spoofing.”

The practice of caller-ID spoofing in itself is not illegal.

FCC rules, under the 2009 Truth in Caller ID Act, “prohibit any person or entity from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value. If no harm is intended or caused, spoofing is not illegal.”

The Guilderland resident was told that he had the option of calling “U.S. Legal Support,” at an 844 area code, before turning himself in, the release says.

“It is intended that if the resident did so, he would have been asked to send money to prevent his arrest,” the release says. “At no time would an officer of this department advise someone to contact a third party or request an exchange of money during any kind of a real investigation.”

Anyone who receives such a call is asked to call the Guilderland Police Department at 518-356-1501.

— Elizabeth Floyd Mair