ELKTON, Md. — It started with a telephone call from a purported Cecil County Sheriff’s deputy who gave their name and badge number to back it up.
The caller ID also suggested it was coming directly from the sheriff’s office.
“They told her that she had a warrant for missing Grand Jury in reference to a murder investigation so the callers had her reveal what her bank accounts were, asked her to go to the bank and take out $1,500 and then drive to a convenience store in Elkton, approximately 15 miles from her residence, and to convert that money into Bitcoin and to pay them through Bitcoin,” explained Cecil County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Holmes.
Scammer's threat snares victim in Cecil County
Before you start blaming the victim for their plight, as some have on social media, let’s take a closer look.
Under Maryland law, if you don’t show up for grand jury duty, you can be fined up to a thousand dollars, put in jail for up to 60 days or both.
Facing the prospects of being arrested, victims like this act to right what they think is their wrong, and the demand to pay up is immediate.
“Well, number one, we will never ask for payment for a warrant,” said Holmes, “If anybody has an outstanding warrant, we would never have them resolve the warrant by paying cash or making a payment. That is something we would take care of by having them turn themselves in and go through the process with the District Court Commissioner’s Office or Circuit Court or whoever it may be, but we would never take money to get rid of a warrant.”
Experts say the best advice when you receive one of these calls is to simply hang up and to call the police.
You also can better protect yourself if you make yourself aware of the various scams out there, so you’ll know how to react if they call you.
When the criminals learned the victim had more money in her accounts, they tried to get her to pay more, and that’s when she called police, having learned her lesson the hard way.
“These are becoming more common unfortunately with different phone apps and AI and things of that nature that if there’s ever a doubt, call us to verify, but anybody that’s asking for money more than likely is a scam,” cautioned Holmes.
