Baltimore County Police Warns Residents of Recent Spoofing Incidents

In what appears to be a regional trend, scammers are calling residents, disguising themselves as police officers and demanding money. The callers also attempt to obtain personal information. We remind the public that the Baltimore County Police Department does not solicit anyone for monetary funds, bank information, or social security numbers over the phone or in person. Below are tips to follow if you receive an unsolicited phone call:

• Don't answer calls from unknown numbers. If you answer and it’s not who you expected, don’t hang on, hang up. If a caller asks you to hit a button to stop getting calls, just hang up. 
• Never assume an unexpected call is legitimate. Hang up and call back using a number you can verify on a bill, a statement, or an official website. 
• Be suspicious. Scammers can be persuasive: They may ask innocuous questions, sound threatening, or sometimes seem too good to be true
• Ask your phone company about call-blocking tools for landlines or apps for mobile devices. 
• Report spoofing scams to law enforcement, the FCC, and the FTC.