Posted on 03/03/26
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Mar. 3, 2026 - Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated tactics to pressure Maryland residents into handing over money, from phone calls impersonating family members to text messages posing as official court notices.
Warnings from the Better Business Bureau have long included the so-called grandparent scam, which targeted three residents in Baltimore County not long ago. In that scheme, a caller claims to be a grandchild who needs $10,000 for bail money.
Baltimore County police previously warned residents that some versions of the scam go beyond asking for money to be mailed or sent online. “The thing that is most unnerving about these cases is that most of the time people want money sent through the mail or sent through the internet. But in these cases, they're actually sending somebody to the victim's house to pick up that cash,” said Officer Jennifer Peach of the Baltimore County Police Department.
Now, authorities are warning about a new scam circulating by text message. Baltimore City police issued a reminder in a tweet in response to a bulletin from the Maryland Judiciary warning residents about a text scam involving alleged toll violations in Baltimore City District Court.
The text claims court records show an unpaid toll violation and says the recipient is summoned and required to appear in court — or pay a fine before the court date.
“It is not true. It is not something that people should worry about,” said Karen Straughn of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.
The Maryland Attorney General’s Office Consumer Protection Division advised residents to watch for red flags that indicate a message is a con. “Some of the red flags are that it ask you to do something immediately, gives you very little time to think about it. That's a red flag because what they're trying to do is get you to act quickly without talking to anyone else because they are likely to tell you that this is a scam,” Straughn said.
Authorities said the scam can look legitimate, including what appears to be an AI-generated court summons and a QR code for payment.
Scams like these can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars — if not millions — stolen from consumers, and the people behind them are often difficult to catch, authorities say. “Most of them are not ones that happen in Maryland. Most of them happen outside of the country where we would have no jurisdiction whatsoever. In addition, sometimes are using phone numbers that are not real phone numbers, they're using information that makes it difficult to track them,” Straughn said.
Consumer protection officials say anyone who receives the toll-violation text should delete it.