The caller states the person owes money for an arrest warrant, unpaid student loan taxes, unpaid federal or state taxes or immigration issues and insists the person send money via a transferring service, prepaid card or by providing their bank account number, according to the statement.

Apparently the numbers appear to be legitimate, but the caller ID is spoofed to reflect a law enforcement or government agency phone number.

"We want to get the word out to students not to wire money to (these) individuals," MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.

In regards to this being a occurring thing, McGlothian-Taylor said due to the influx of new students on campus, many of whom might not be aware they are being scammed. 

At the time, the officer responsible for helping investigate the scams was not available for comment.

Police are asking residents to visit https://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/avoid-scams, http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0076-phone-scams or http://www.stopfraud.gov.

MSU police also lists a number of safety tips to protect individuals from the scam:

1. Never hand over your bankcard or compromise your bank account's security.

2. Look at return addresses before opening your email. If you do not recognize the address, do not open it.

3. Be cautious when clicking on any link that will take you to another site. Look up the address of the site you are interested in and type in the address yourself.

4. Never give out your password, PIN or Social Security number.

5. Do not give out financial information over the phone to someone that has contacted you.

6. Become familiar with the information given in the above links to prevent you from becoming a victim of a scam artist. 

7. Remember legitimate agencies (police departments, IRS, U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. Customs, etc., would never contact someone via telephone and demand payment through a transfer service, prepaid cards or request a bank account number.