How do police phone calls happen?

Posted by hydrophobic-potato@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 290 comments

As of 30 mins ago I was called by ‘No Called ID’ of someone saying ‘Hi I’m calling on behalf of (county name) police about an allegation made against you, please call us back.’ and I don’t know if it’s a scam or not. I’ve never been in this situation and I haven’t committed any crimes so I don’t know why I’d ever get this call. I have a gut feeling that it is just a prank/scam call but on the off chance it’s not I’m worried about consequences of ignoring it. Is it real and what do I do?