State Police Maryland State Police Recover $12,000 For Elderly Victim Of Phone Scam In Carroll County

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(WESTMINSTER, MD) – Maryland State Police helped recover $12,000 for an apparent victim of a telephone scam in Carroll County.

At about 8 a.m. this morning, the elderly female victim arrived at the Maryland State Police Westminster Barrack to report that she believed she had been the victim of a scam. According to a preliminary investigation, the victim had been convinced to ship $12,000 in cash via FedEx to an address in Belmont, California. The scam originated from a telephone call the female received.

Using the information the victim brought to the barrack, a trooper tracked the package and contacted the FedEx Law Enforcement Liaison in California. The package containing the $12,000 was located and pulled from delivery. The money is being returned to the original victim.

Here are some tips to protect yourself from scams in general:

• Do not give out your personal information to someone you do not know.
• Store personal information in a safe place.
• Do not carry your social security card in your wallet.
• Collect mail every day and put a hold on it during extended travel.
• Use security features on your smartphone and computer.
• Use complex passwords.
• Do not use gift cards to pay the IRS or Social Security, tech support, a family member in trouble, ransom or to avoid arrest or deportation or to prevent your utilities from being turned off.
• Trust your instincts. If you think it might be a scam, it probably is one.

The case remains under investigation…

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CONTACT: Office of Media Communications, msp.media@maryland.gov

Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: https://so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at https://so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at https://so.md/expungeme.