Recognizing a scam before it happens to you

Trust your gut. It’s often right. 

Especially when it comes to someone asking you for money over the phone or via email. When you start feeling uneasy, dig a little deeper.

Beachplace Condo Association held a seminar on Jan. 23 about avoiding phone and identity theft scams, led by Detective Lt. Robert Bourque from the Longboat Key Police Department. Many of the tips and tricks involve just a bit of calm thinking and common sense, but Bourque discussed how your police department tries to stop crimes that happen in-person in their tracks. 

“We say, ‘But nothing ever happens in Longboat Key,’” Bourque said. “Well, it does happen. And we don't want it to happen to you, so lock your doors, turn your alarms on and know how to work surveillance equipment.”

Phone scams trying to swindle people out of their money are some of the most common crimes reported in Longboat Key and elsewhere. They’re also some of the least arrestable, since most originate overseas, said Bourque. 

“I could never sit here and tell you all the scams that are out there,” Bourque said. “There’s thousands of them.” 

Hopefully, you’ve figured out the common scam of a grandson in jail or injured and needing money (though Bourque said he knows of someone who once fell for that — without having a grandson). But with the internet, anyone from any corner of the world can call you up and try to get you out of a few hundred dollars. There’s a common theme with many scams, however.

“If someone asks you for a gift card, it’s a scam,” Bourque said. 

Gift cards are untraceable, so once your money’s gone into those gift cards and you’ve cooperated with the scammer, you’re pretty much out of luck. With scams that involve checks and your bank account, your best bet is to act as quickly as possible to try to trace your money’s steps within 24 hours to get it back.

Many scams also play on people’s fear by calling and letting the person know there’s a warrant for their arrest. They may even use a spoofed phone number with the correct area code. Hang up, don’t call that number back, and find out the real number of the police department or other agency that just “called” you. 

“Most likely, government agencies will not call and ask you for money,” Bourque said. “If there’s a warrant for your arrest, you can’t buy your way out of it.” 

Phone scams aren’t necessarily targeting Longboat Key, Bourque said, since those criminals are just trying everyone they can get their hands on in the hopes that one person will fall for it. However, certain types of crimes, including high-end burglary from professional criminals or even from service workers nabbing jewelry or valuables while moving from room to room, are more prone to draw criminals to Longboat Key’s wealthier, older population.

“The goal is to keep criminals off Longboat Key,” Bourque said. 

Very little crime originates on Longboat Key, which was ranked as the fourth-safest Florida town in 2019, and most crimes that hit the island come from south Florida or in Sarasota. Often, Longboat Key police will watch Naples closely, because when they become victims of a professional crime, Longboat Key is often next with its similar demographics. It hasn’t happened since early 2019, but there was once a night when three Longboat Key homes were robbed. Longboat Key police had worked closely with Naples police, and though they didn’t make an arrest for another week, they knew who it was once the burglaries happened. 

“Longboat Key is really good at that because we spend every resource we have and every in a lot of man hours to investigate that over some agencies that are bigger,” Bourque said.