NBVPD Community Advisory

The North Bay Village Police Department would like to raise awareness about a recent phone scam incident that was reported by one of our residents.

The resident received a phone call from someone claiming to be a US Customs Agent; the phone number utilized was an out of state number. The caller told the resident that someone had used their information to receive packages which supposedly contained contraband and illegal substances. The caller told the resident that they were in legal trouble which would have to be resolved with either the US Marshals or through the court system. The caller directed the resident to access the “actual” US Customs website to verify the agent’s “name” in the directory. The caller told the resident that they would be faxing the information to the North Bay Village Police Department, which would contact them directly. Almost immediately after hanging up with the caller, the resident received a phone call from someone claiming to be a North Bay Village Police Department official. Much to their credit the resident immediately ended the phone call and reported the incident to our department.

It is important to know that these phone call scams are becoming more elaborate and are always done for nefarious reasons. In this incident, the scammer tried to intimidate the resident by naming multiple law enforcement agencies and used the actual names of North Bay Village and Government employees, which can be found online. This makes the scam look credible, while creating a fear in the victim that they are in legal trouble.

The scammers count on this fear to

allow them to provide the victim with a solution to their “legal troubles.” The solution always involves the victim sending the scammers money to “clear their name;” usually by having the victim wire money to the scammers or in the form of gift card purchases. In the gift card variant, victim is told to read the scammer the gift card numbers or enter the numbers in a fake website created by the scammer.

The North Bay Village Police Department is actively investigating this matter and working with our partner agencies. If you ever encounter a similar situation, it is imperative that you verify the validity of the phone call with the actual law enforcement agency. Real law enforcement and federal agencies won’t call and threaten you, nor will they ask you to send money to clear an issue.

This Advisory Bulletin is being distributed to the community as we work hand in hand to raise awareness about these types of scams, in the hope of reducing the number of potential victims.

More information about phone scams is available at:

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/phone-scams