Fire Marshal Scam Reported In Middletown Township

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, PA —The Middletown Township Police Department has issued an alert about a scam involving a fake fire marshal.

"A local business receives a call from the 'Fire Marshal' saying they need payment for required testing or else they would be fined. The best part —the payment must be made in BITCOIN," police said. "The red flag should already be flying....Threats, coercion, and creating a sense of urgency are all huge red flags."

Police said the caller then receives a text message from a person who claims to be their boss, but it wasn't from their already known number because the boss was texting from a computer.

"Many more red flags are waving now," police said. "They should have immediately called the boss on the known number to inquire about this odd request."

The boss then tells the employee via text to get money out of the safe and take it to the BITCOIN machine at some random smoke shop and deposit it. The employee follows the instructions and over $2,000 is gone.

The employee advises their boss that the money has been deposited and then they are told to deposit nearly $600 of their own money to cover more "accrued fees."

The real boss then calls the employee and the employee explains that they followed the boss's instructions.

"The solvability of this is about zero percent. The money is gone and the perpetrators are not able to be identified. Bitcoin has never been a valid form of payment to the Fire Marshal's Office. These scammers are extraordinarily convincing but do not get sucked into their contrived urgency. Call the FM office, call your boss, and confirm the requests with known people and offices before you part with any money," police said.