OAKLAND — In the wake of a recent outage for a commonly-used non-emergency number, police are urging residents to think twice about an apparent scam.

According to a tweet from the department Thursday, some city residents have received calls that appear to be from the department’s 510-777-3333 phone number.

That number suffered from an outage Jan. 21 for several hours.

“The caller claims to be an OPD Dispatcher and asks for money. The caller threatens if you don’t pay the US Marshals will arrest you,” the tweet reads.

Scam-Don’t be the next victim. If you receive a call from the Oakland Police Department’s Dispatch Non-Emergency # 510-777-3333 this is a scam. The caller claims to be an OPD Dispatcher and asks for money. The caller threatens if you don’t pay the US Marshals will arrest you Scam pic.twitter.com/68qTf0yMV7 — Oakland Police Dept. (@oaklandpoliceca) February 1, 2019

Police departments around the Bay Area and beyond have worked in recent weeks and months to alert residents and businesses about similar scams pretending to come from federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service or Social Security Administration, or utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric.

Those scams often use technology to spoof actual phone numbers and ask victims to provide new Apple App Store or Google Play Store codes to protect allegedly compromised accounts.

Other scams request Target gift-card codes or Green Dot MoneyPak card codes in order to avert arrest due to overdue bills or delinquent taxes or confirm eligibility for financial-institution loans or other transactions.

Additional information about any specific incidents affecting Oakland residents was not immediately available Thursday night.

Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.