METAIRIE, LA (WGNO) — If someone claiming to be from the Causeway Police Department calls you and threatens to arrest you if you don’t pay up, it’s a scam.
Tuesday, the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission, the organization that runs the Causeway, issued a warning about the scam. According to General Manager Carleton Dufrechou, someone is calling people in the New Orleans area and claiming to be GNOEC workers or police. The caller then tells the person that there is some sort of citation or other issue that could lead to the person’s arrest if they don’t pay up.
Dufrechou says the scammer is somehow using phone numbers associated with the GNOEC and/or police. But he also says that none of the commission’s internal systems have been breached.
Perhaps the biggest giveaway that it’s a scam comes when the caller agrees to accept a gift card as payment.
For the record, any citations issued on the bridge are handled in either Jefferson or St. Tammany Parish, depending upon where the infraction occurred. Also, in recent years, multiple law enforcement agencies in the area have reported similar scams.