Baltimore County police are warning small-business owners and their employees to beware of phone calls from people claiming to represent the police or a credit card company.

In one case, the caller stated he worked for MasterCard and needed information on some recent transactions, police said.

He claimed the credit card machine was off-line and he needed to put card numbers and transactions in manually, telling the employee that he would call back later for more information after he logged the numbers in, according to police.

In two other cases, the caller passed himself off as a police detective from the Reisterstown Police Department and told the business owner he had two people in custody wanted for credit card fraud, police said.

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He asked for any credit card receipts the owner may have had, according to police.

Police ask anyone who believes he or she fell victim to this particular form of credit card fraud to contact Baltimore County Police Department’s Economic Crimes Unit at 410-887-2190.