OCEAN CITY, Md. - The Ocean City Police Department is warning the public after they say several concerned citizens have called police after receiving suspicious phone calls.
Police say these calls have reportedly come from individuals pretending to be officers that are informing citizens of fake warrants and asking them to send money to have the warrants taken care of. One call in particular asked a victim to remain on the phone while driving to the courthouse.
The caller ID for this scam shows up as Ocean City Police Department, but police are reminding the public that no police department will ever call to have warrants taken care of by asking for any form of payment. The department urges those who receive suspicious calls to not give out personal or payment information.
Other common scams include scammers pretending to be children or grandchildren in need, dialing 90# to assist a phone company investigating technical problems with individual lines, "spoofing" by using a false caller ID to disguise the caller's identity, auto warranty scams, targeting people from areas impacted by storms, and more.
The Federal Communications Commission website has a list of additional scams and ways to avoid them like ignoring calls from unknown numbers, not responding to questions that ask for personal information or could be answered with "yes" or "no," and hanging up on callers who say they represent a company or government agency and calling the number on your account statement or the entity's official website to verify requests.