ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WMAR) — Annapolis Police are warning of scams that have been reported lately.
One victim received a phone call from someone falsely claiming to be an out-of-state law enforcement officer.
The scammer threatened the victim with criminal prosecution and fines, and said their Social Security account would be frozen unless the victim bought a gift card and sent photos to the caller.
When the victim goes to buy the gift card, the scammers pressure you to stay on the phone to try and get your personal account information.
Another scam involved an email that the victim thought came from a friend, which said they could win money from the IRS.
The victim was told in order to win, they had to send money to the scammer. The scammer would then text the victim to ask for more money.
Police say the scammers emails and text messages had spelling and grammatical errors, which is common in scams.
Officials recommend that you not provide any sensitive information over the phone, especially on calls you did not initiate from numbers unknown to you.
Buying gift cards and providing those numbers to someone over the phone is also a clear sign of a scam, police say, as the Social Security Administration will never call to threaten your benefits.
