Beware Phone Scams Impersonating Chief Assistant Sheriff Darrin Palmer #PGSO

(WARNING: DO NOT GIVE CALLERS YOUR MONEY)

Upper Marlboro, MD… The Sheriff’s Office is continuing to hear from citizens and residents that they are receiving calls from scam callers who claim to be from the Sheriff’s Office, telling them that they owe money to the IRS, they have outstanding warrants, or some other law enforcement actions, but that they can pay to resolve the matter. Neither the Office of the Sheriff, nor any other law enforcement agency, asks citizens to take such an action.

In the most recent scams reported to the Sheriff, the scammer claimed to be Chief Assistant Sheriff Darrin Palmer calling to notify the citizen that they had to pay a fine to avoid further action. These calls can appear to be coming from a local number or a 1-800- number and may actually be from out of state or even out of the country.

“We will continue to notify citizens and residents each time we get these calls,” said Chief Assistant Sheriff Darrin Palmer. “There are simply no circumstances in which the Sheriff or any law enforcement agency would make calls demanding payment, period. We’re telling residents that they should never give, wire or mail funds to anyone who calls saying anything like this. These are predators, and their actions are pure and simple scams,” he said.

Previous scams have included calls saying a citizen had failed to show up in court for a red light camera ticket, or they failed to appear in court or for jury duty, or the caller was calling from the IRS on Sheriff High’s behalf. None of these is true and would simply never occur.

We continue to ask for the media’s assistance in getting this message out and we appreciate everything they have done to report these scams.

Any resident who receives such a call can contact the Prince George’s County Police at 301-772-4420 and file an incident report.

“We urge citizens who get these calls to call our office immediately, even if it is for nothing more than reassurance,“ said Colonel Palmer.

For more information contact the Communications and Public Affairs Division at 301-780-7354.