COLUMBIA, Md. — A Howard County man lost $5,000 after receiving a threatening call from someone claiming to be law enforcement. The scammer convinced the victim he needed to pay thousands of dollars to avoid arrest.
The victim, who asked to remain anonymous, said he's usually very cautious about calls from unknown numbers, but these scammers managed to convince him to withdraw $7,000 and head to a Bitcoin kiosk in just about an hour.
"Person on the other line identified themselves as Sergeant Lance somebody with the Howard County Police. And I said, 'What's this about?'" the victim said.
The caller told him there were "outstanding citations" and that he "was supposed to appear at a grand jury trial for a murder case."
"I said, 'No, that's impossible,'" the victim recalled.
He asked the caller to confirm their identities, and he spoke with several individuals who provided names, badge numbers, and citation numbers.
"I recognized it as a Howard County government number," he said, explaining why he initially believed the call was legitimate.
The scammers told him the best way to make his two $3,500 citations go away was to pay them immediately.
"I think it was the threat of having a warrant issued and possibly being arrested, and possibly having my employer contacted," the victim explained. "I went to the bank, withdrew the money, and then he said, 'You have to find one of these Bitcoin kiosk stations.'"
He went to the closest Bitcoin kiosk at a gas station in a local shopping center and began feeding money into the machine.
"As you're putting every $100 in, you're saying stop in the back of your head, but you keep going. But there was something, I don't know what it was, when I got to that number that I said, 'This is crazy,'" the victim said.
After depositing $5,000, he had an epiphany and asked the cashier to call the real Howard County Police.
Howard County Police spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn said these scams are common and often use real names of command-level personnel.
"In Howard County, the police department, the sheriff's office, in this scam are used interchangeably. So there are real names of real command-level people being used in these fake calls that are supposedly from police or the sheriff. Regardless, we absolutely want people to hang up immediately and call us right away," Llewellyn said.
Llewellyn added that the department routinely posts warnings on Facebook, with the most recent one in October.
"There's a sense of urgency to what they're doing, and they're very good at it. So while it's hard to catch the people who are responsible, our focus really is to warn our residents so that they're not victimized," Llewellyn said.
She emphasized that the most important thing is to never send money unless you've verified directly with the source.
"Say, 'thank you very much,' hang up immediately, and then call the police department's non-emergency line directly and we will let you know if there's an issue concerning you that needs to be dealt with," Llewellyn advised.
If you receive one of these calls, it's important to report it to Howard County Police. They want to know about different scams circulating so they can better warn the public. They say education is their best defense against these scams. The Howard County Police non-emergency phone number is 410-313-3200.
To report scams to the Federal Trade Commission, click here.
And click here to report any scams to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
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