FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Fraudsters are targeting Southwest Florida residents year-round, and a retired FBI agent is sharing critical warning signs to help people protect themselves.<\/p>\n
People must stay vigilant because fraudsters never stop. Constant awareness is essential to avoid becoming a victim.<\/p>\n
FBI Special Agent Rebecca\u00a0Keithley\u00a0outlined<\/a>\u00a0several red\u00a0<\/a>flags\u00a0<\/a>that\u00a0indicate a potential fraud attempt.<\/p>\n “Fear is probably the number one red flag,” Keithley said.<\/p>\n She explained that fraudsters often create a false sense of urgency to pressure victims into acting quickly. They may claim someone will miss an incredible investment opportunity, lose a new romance, or face arrest if they don’t act immediately.<\/p>\n “If the person requesting payment is demanding that you keep the interaction secret, that’s a red flag,” Keithley said.<\/p>\n Unusual payment methods are another warning sign. Keithley said requests for gift cards, cryptocurrency, gold bars, or cash pickups by courier are major red flags.<\/p>\n “If someone is requesting payment from you and the justification doesn’t make sense, that’s a red flag, and the intention behind that is to confuse the targeted victim and to put them into that autopilot mode so they act without thinking,” Keithley said.<\/p>\n She advised anyone who identifies these red flags to pause, breathe, and create distance from the interaction before taking any action.<\/p>\n Everyone should remain suspicious to protect their data, identity, and money. Florida ranked third in losses and cybercrime reports in 2024, and authorities don’t expect the 2025 numbers to improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Fraudsters are targeting Southwest Florida residents year-round, and a retired FBI agent is sharing critical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,2364,28,897,1521,79913,13495],"class_list":["post-199673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-southwest-florida","tag-special-agent","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}