Baltimore has been hit with a phone scam similar to one that swept Northern Virginia recently -- but this one seemed to come from a police station's phone number.
Maryland State Police are warning residents across Howard County and Baltimore to be wary of calls that demand payment for unpaid court fines or traffic tickets. In this instance, a scammer spoofed state police's Waterloo Barracks phone number.
"Spoofing" numbers allows scammers to display a different number than the one they are actually using in your caller ID.
Victims received calls from 410-799-2101 Wednesday afternoon, in which a man claiming to be from the police threatened them with arrest if they did not make payments. Officers were alerted to the scam when skeptical residents called the number back and were connected to the barracks.
Police have reiterated they do not call citizens to demand payment and have said that anyone who receives a call from this man should report it to the barracks at the above number.
Check out our advice on avoiding similar scams this summer.
