Nine new reports of phone scams in Collier County

Scam calls. We all get them, but how do we avoid them?

“In the first phone calls in May 2023, they were using just random names, ‘Oh, I’m Sergeant Smith,’ or whatever, which is very common. And now they’re using real names and real titles of active law enforcement officers,” said Ruben Ramos.

Ramos is a senior investigator with the Office of Inspector General. He said they’ve seen a spike in scam calls recently.

“If you do not recognize the phone number or the phone number, the caller ID is blocked; do not answer,” he added. “If it’s important, they will not leave a message for you.”

Samantha Misener got a call from someone who said they worked at the sheriff’s office.

“And then he said, this is a recorded line. And this is basically an attempt to like, let you know that you’ve got to bench warrants out for your arrest for missing jury duty,” Misener explained. “So immediately, he started giving me like, citation numbers. So, I’m like feverishly writing all this down.”

She didn’t fall for it and reported it to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

Mary Shucart got a call last month from someone acting like a court officer, saying she failed to appear in court.

“I just told him again, I’m just really skeptical. I know there’s a lot of scams, so I’m going to have to just call the sheriff’s department and find out first of all this is, you are who you are,” she said. “And he was pretty adamant that he was self-assured that he was legitimate. And he said, you’re going to end up calling me, so I hung up.”

Ramos said scammers are using employee names and badge numbers, and even judge’s names, to convince the victim the violations are real.

“If you happen to be in a phone call, and they insist on or demanding for you to make a payment, please be aware that us here in the courthouse or any law enforcement agency will never call you and demand payment,” Ramos added.

For more information on how to report a scam call, click here.