Police have cautioned Lafayette residents not to give out credit card information over the phone after a slew of customers received fake calls this week from a man claiming to be from the local Pizza Hut.

“I’ve had about fifteen customers since Sunday say that they’d gotten a call,” said Pizza Hut manager Leah Hines, “saying that the last time they were here the credit card didn’t go through and we need their credit card number. The Caller ID is saying it’s Pizza Hut, but there’s no one here doing it. It happened twice when only me and one other person was here. We weren’t even open.

“Last night, this lady I know real well called said somebody had called her and done that to her. She said she hadn’t eaten here in four or five days, and I told her it wasn’t us [who called]. She said it sounds like a Russian man. It was like he was trying to fake his voice; he sounded Russian.”

Apparently, said Hines, there is a cell phone application on the market that allows you to call someone and make it look like you’re calling from a different number. The caller is altering his Caller ID to read Pizza Hut, and then scamming for credit card information.

Police advise that because it is a cell phone situation, tracking would be difficult. They advise citizens to simply avoid giving out information when they get calls from people they don’t recognize.