Parents Please Beware Of This Florida School District Scam

Parents, Please beware of this Florida School district scam. It's the holiday season, and scammers are out  looking for their next victims. This particular scam is happening in Collier county. Collier county is about 4 hours from where I live in St. Petersburg.

Collier county public schools has a new scam that they are warning the public about it. It involves fake text messages of people claiming to be school officials. The scam is being called smishing which is a combination of texting and phishing.

Phishing can be done by email or cell phone. It involves messages from unrecognizable phone numbers. These scammers are pretending to be school officials and saying things like ‘Kindly let me know if you receive my text’. Once people respond, it leads to a conversation of the scammers asking the victims to donate gift cards. They say the gift cards are for members of the school district.

According to reports, Collier County Public Schools usually only text important information during emergencies. Weather situations or to remind of significant events are reasons they may text you as well.

School district officials will never ask you for money via text messages. If you are not sure of the person texting or calling, do not give them your information. You would think people understood this but they don't.

Be careful especially during the holiday season, because there are all types of scams going on. They don't just involve school districts. There is also a jury duty scam going on as well. The scammers are texting people and telling them they have Jury duty. They go on to tell people if they don't show up or pay they will go to jail.

Happy Holidays and be safe. Read More 

Sick of picking up your phone only to discover it's another scam call? Then blocking these 9 scam numbers can help immediately and bring you a sense of relief. A company called BeenVerified has report that over 150,000 suspicious phone numbers in the past two years and they've narrowed it down to these nine spam and scam numbers. These numbers also lead to hundreds of complaints or more. Most of the scam numbers also fire off scam text messages to trick unsuspecting victims into clicking links.

Another scam that’s going around right now is having a police officer offer call you claiming you missed federal jury duty. Good thing about this scam is you can easily Google the number to check your juror duty status. Make sure you ask several questions if someone is calling you saying this information. They might come off as knowledgeable, but you can trip them up if you know what you’re talking about.

Scams in Tampa, come in various forms and target many different individuals. It is important for you to be aware and protect yourself from thieves and finances. There’s been multiple scams reported in Florida recently including email scams, phone, home improvement, fake charity and even rental scams. The home improvement scams will be someone offering services to fix your roof, driveway, or landscaping at incredibly low prices. Usually, they want payment first and then either perform subpar work or completely disappear.

Make sure you protect yourself by being cautious. Don’t be so quick to share personal information, and always research before handing over your information. Make sure it’s a legit business and charity using reputable platforms for financial transactions. Additionally, if there is any suspicious activities, call your local law enforcement to notify them of new scams in Tampa.

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This is the top scam that's an automated text message warning victims that their Wells Fargo bank account had been temporarily locked. The scammers want you to call their fake number to give up their personal account information.

This is very similar to the previous one where they will spam out a text message: '[Bank name]: ACCNT #5674 temporarily ON HOLD! Your security is our priority. Call now: (858) 605-9622 (Do Not Disregard!)' They're trying to scare you in order to see get personal information.

Look out for this text message 'ATT Free Msg: Congrats to 2 lucky users! Today's winners of our raffle are: Tim N***** and you, (Name)!' These give false promises that you'll get lottery cash and prizes.

These scammers claim to be from Publisher's Clearing House. They claim that an unpaid bill may result in freezing of their assets.

This scam will make you feel like something had genuinely gone wrong with a real shipment. They will you for the last two digits of your SSN for verification. Just get off the phone because it's a scam.

This one is betting on that fact that you have a debit card. They'll say everything is frozen and need your information to correct it.

These complaints were filed from March 2023 in a scary voice message from the Scream movies from an unknown number. In the message it begins, 'Is this [user's name]? Oh good! It's funny how you can see someone's true character when they are alone. Or at least when they think they're alone. I have one question for you, [user's name]. Guess where I'm hiding?'

These scams are using weight-loss products for a delivery scam. Again, these scams are looking for and need your information.

This phone messages will allegedly be from a 'Kelsey Adams' about a deadline for student-loan forgiveness. They need you to act or your deadline will be missed.