April 27th, 2016 by WCBC Radio

Allegany County Sheriff Craig Robertson has released the following statement on a scam attempt,

On Wednesday, April 27 at 9:04 am, former Sheriff David Goad received a phone call at his residence, which displayed on his caller ID that the call was from the Allegany County Sheriff’s Office. The display also showed my office’s phone number of (301)777-1585.
Thinking that the call was actually coming from the Sheriff’s Office, he answered the call and was greeted by a male subject with a foreign accent. The caller asked for him by name and indicated that he was an investigator and provided a badge number. As soon as Mr. Goad asked where the caller was calling from, the call was disconnected.
These type of calls are concerning to me because with technology today individuals are able to manipulate caller ID’s, making these calls appear to be coming from legitimate locations. We are unsure of the caller’s intent because the phone call was disconnected. Please keep in mind that the Allegany County Sheriff’s Office is not doing phone solicitation of any type. In no way would anyone from my Office contact the public in an attempt to obtain personal information of any nature, bank accounts, credit card numbers, etc. I am also unaware of any other local law enforcement agency doing such.
There are many types of scams being performed today. Some callers identifying themselves as being from the IRS and threating arrest, if funds are not transferred to them, while others pretend to be a relative, who has been involved in an accident, in need of money. They even target people notifying them of winning a large prize, money and/or a new car, but ask the winner to send money or provide their credit card number in order to cover the cost of processing their winnings.
These types of phone solicitations are done so that the individual called does not have the time to research to see if the cause is legitimate or not. They are trying to pressure you into providing them with needed information on the spot to take your money.
I’d like to remind citizens that if you receive a call soliciting money use caution. If you are contemplating making a donating, ask the caller to send you the information to you in the mail. This allows you time to check on the accuracy of the caller’s intent. If you have questions after that, please contact a local law enforcement agency for assistance.