Naples residents warned of police number/name scam.
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Naples police are warning citizens about fraudulent activity in which scammers use official Naples Police Department phone numbers and the names of actual officers to deceive people.
Lt. Bryan McGinn of the Naples Police Department stressed the severity of the situation, according to a recent article by Alexa Velez of NBC2.
“The police department or other law enforcement agency in the United States will not call you and request funds. That’s not how it works,” McGinn explained.
In a recent incident, an impostor called someone on the department’s non-emergency number and presented themselves as Assistant Chief Robert Montagano of the bogus “Naples Police Security Division,” which does not exist inside the organization. They posed personal inquiries to the person on the other end of the phone, such as “When will you be home?”, “When do you work?”, and “When are you normally awake?”
“You never know how the fraudsters would try to separate you from your money. But that’s essentially what they’re trying to do, whether it’s property, money, or something else,” McGinn explained. “So the best course of action is to not provide any of that kind of personal information to anybody that you don’t know at all.”
Scammers utilize spoofing software to conceal their genuine phone numbers, making it look like calls are coming from legitimate sources. They frequently have personal information, such as names and addresses, obtained from data leaks and public records.
Dr. Andrea Hayes, an endocrinologist from Naples, expressed concern about the scam’s impact on vulnerable people.
“I hate to hear about it — especially elderly people getting scammed because it seems like it’s all around,” according to her. “I once had a patient in his mid-eighties who was told to meet a scammer at a store and buy a bunch of gift cards, which he did, and it wiped out his $100,000 bank account.”
If you receive a strange call claiming to be from the Naples Police Department seeking money or personal information, hang up right away.
To check the call’s validity, contact the police directly at 239-213-4844 or 239-213-3000.
This article originally appeared on NBC2.