One Mississippi police department is warning residents that scammers are using the police department’s phone number in a phone scam that targets local men looking for love online.

The Laurel Police Department recently warned in a news release that it has received complaints about a phone scam from local men who visited a dating website called OkCupid.

The complainants, all of whom were men, advised that they began conversing with an individual they believed to be a woman on the dating website.

After exchanging messages and photos with the woman, complainants say they then received a phone call from a man who would inform them that they were the father of the woman they had been speaking with and that she is a juvenile.

The caller then proceeded to make demands for various amounts of money in order to prevent him from pursuing child-related sex crime charges.

The number on caller ID shows up as the Laurel Police Department’s number. The people calling are not associated with the LPD, the news release said.

For more information or to report criminal activity, call the Laurel Police Department at 601-399-4440 or Crime Stoppers at 601-428-STOP &867).