BEL AIR, Md. — A Harford County couple thought they were speaking with the sheriff's office when a caller nearly convinced them to hand over thousands of dollars. The sophisticated scam included personal details and even spoofed the official agency's phone number.
Nicole and Joe Markland received a call from someone claiming to be an officer with the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The caller told Nicole she missed a court appearance and a judge issued a warrant for her arrest.
"He said that he was an officer with the Harford County Sheriff's Office," Nicole Markland said. "I was supposed to show up as a character witness for a case the day before."
Initially skeptical, Nicole became convinced when the caller provided key details including information about a court case in their community.
"They had my full name. They knew the address," Nicole Markland said. "They had my complete address."
The scammer told Nicole to report to the Edgewood precinct.
"Why would a scam send us directly to a cop?" Nicole asked.
Her husband, Joe, also believed the caller may be legitimate. The fake officer then presented two options: Nicole could be detained for 72 hours and up to 14 days, or they could pay a $7,500 bond before arriving at the station.
The couple chose to pay and withdrew the cash from their bank.
"I leave the bank, I get in the car, and I said, now where are we supposed to go?" asked Joe Markland. "And he says, Well, there's bond posting terminals in public places all over the place because there's people that need to post bond when the courthouses are closed."
The explanation seemed reasonable until Joe looked up the address and discovered it was a gas station. When he expressed concern, the scammer offered to verify his identity by calling from the official sheriff's line, which then appeared on Nicole's caller ID.
At the gas station, the couple realized something was wrong when they were directed to use a Bitcoin kiosk.
"I'm looking around, I'm like, I see an ATM, I see soda machines, I see a lottery machine. This isn't right," Joe Markland said. "And then, they're like, Oh well, it'll say something along the lines of kiosk or something like that. And we're like, there's a Bitcoin kiosk, and they're like, Yeah, that's the terminal. And we both are like, I'm not doing it."
The couple drove directly to the sheriff's office, where deputies confirmed it was a scam.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said legitimate law enforcement will never ask for money to resolve warrants.
"If you have an open warrant we might be reaching out to try and find you, but you're never going to be able to satisfy that warrant by going to buy gift cards or sending cash right away, we will never ask you for money," Gahler said.
Harford County has received 14 reports of police impersonator scams this year, with victims losing nearly $80,000.
"Just on police-related scams this year and those are just the people who reported to us. The average victim loses just below $5,000 to one of these scammers," Gahler said.
The sheriff explained that these scams are difficult to stop because many operate from overseas call centers and can easily spoof phone numbers.
"This is one of those types of things, one call taker goes down, there's 10 others ready to step up and take their place and create more victims," Gahler said.
"They just sounded like police officers. They had police chatter in the background. It sounded like an episode of Cops, you know," Joe Markland said.
Gahler noted that scammers can easily collect convincing personal details online. The Marklands just never expected to become the target.
"When you look back, you know it's a scam when you're hearing it because we found out it was and we caught it, but when you're in it, there's nothing you can do besides verify as much as you can," Nicole Markland said.
If anyone calls claiming to be law enforcement or any company demanding payment, hang up immediately. Then call the agency or business directly using the number on their official website, not the number provided by the caller.
The Federal Trade Commission has more information on how to protect yourself from police impersonator scams. They include:
- Hang up. Real law enforcement won’t call to threaten arrest or demand payment.
- Don’t pay. Never send cash, gift cards, or Bitcoin to clear a warrant.
- Ignore caller ID. Scammers can spoof real agency numbers.
- Verify directly. Call your local sheriff’s office using a number from its official website.
- Report it. Go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov to file a report.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.