Frederick Sheriff's Office Warns About Growing Scam Targeting Residents Where Caller Poses As Law Enforcement
FREDERICK, Md. (WJZ) -- The Frederick County Sheriff's Office is warning residents about a scam after they received a large number of calls about someone posing as a member of the sheriff's office and stating they have a warrant for the caller or someone in their family. The scammer is targeting mostly seniors and using actual names and titles of Frederick County Sheriff's Office leaders.
The scammer is then asking the person to pay for the warrant with gift cards or green dot cards and instructing them on how to do this. The callers are using Frederick County numbers and giving the person the FSCO main line number.
They are telling the victims if they don't pay, a deputy or officer will arrest them immediately.
It's a growing scam and the sheriff's office has received more than 10 calls or in-person visits per day about this since the beginning of June.
A young nurse practitioner reported Thursday night that she paid $12,000 to the scammers. Authorities said the scammers got the woman to send them an initial $6,000 payment. But then told her since she paid with a credit card, in order to avoid getting arrested that day, to send it to them using cash.
During a press conference Friday, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said the sheriff's office will not call an individual to notify them of an arrest.
"We send a deputy or deputies to that individual's home or place of work, either in uniform or with identification and a badge to execute a warrant and we have a copy of the warrant in hand," Jenkins said. "We execute the arrest right there."
He added that no law enforcement agency will ask for payments to satisfy warrants or fines with credit cards or money of any kind. He also reminded residents to never give their personal information to these callers, including bank information or your social security number.
If you get one of these calls, he asks that you call your local police department, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office or the Maryland State Police.
