The man on the phone said he was Captain Milder from Dauphin County, and he said I had to pay some fines immediately or risk being arrested.
No, he said, an official notification had not been sent. That’s why he’s calling. To let me know I had to take care of these violations immediately.
And no, he wouldn’t tell me what the violations were for or when they happened. I would need to come “down here” to settle the matter. And now.
Needless to say, it was a scam. An infuriating one. Infuriating because a lot of good people are falling for it. And many of them are older people who want to make sure they cooperate with law enforcement.
Except the more I questioned the man on the other end of the line, the more he sounded less like an officer of the law and more like someone breaking it and trying to make me his victim. So I hung up, but I was plenty angry. Here’s why:…