Attorney General Bondi’s Weekly Briefing
Scammers are always looking for new schemes to steal your money. They will even go as far as impersonating government officials or law enforcement. Recently we received complaints from consumers targeted by imposter scams—some involved scammers impersonating officials from my office.These scammers typically request a wire payment to stop some non-existent state action or they seek social security numbers or other personal information. One common imposter scam involves a caller claiming to be law enforcement. They target grandparents claiming a grandchild is in jail. The scammer then requests a money transfer or prepaid debit card as bail.
If you receive one of these calls or an email seeking money claiming to be from my office, the IRS or some other government agency, do not respond. Instead call the agency directly.
Here are a few other common types of imposter scams:
Charity Scams: Imposters pose as representatives of a legitimate charity or espouse a fictional charity in order to solicit funds.
Lottery Scams: Scammers claiming to be with the state lottery, other government agency or a private law firm call or email claiming you won the lottery and must make a payment to claim the price.
Utility Scams: Caller claims to represent a utility company and threatens to shut off utilities if a payment is not made immediately.
If you are a target of these or any other scam, please contact my office at MyFloridaLegal.com or by calling (866) 9-NO-SCAM. Working together we can protect Florida’s consumers. |
