{"id":395219,"date":"2026-09-09T22:36:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T22:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/395219\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T22:36:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T22:36:53","slug":"got-a-call-from-someone-saying-hes-the-largo-police-chief-asking-for-money-its-a-scam-officials-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/395219\/","title":{"rendered":"Got a call from someone saying he’s the Largo police chief, asking for money? It’s a scam, officials warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

LARGO, Fla. \u2014 Largo police is warning residents about a new scam where a caller pretends to be the Largo Police Department Chief Mike Loux<\/a>, adding that they will never call you to demand money.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, Largo police issued the warning, telling the community that the scammer, once they have someone on the phone, and while pretending to be the police chief, is telling people that there is an outstanding warrant and then demanding money to avoid an arrest or resolve the warrant.<\/p>\n


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“DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! Law Enforcement will NEVER call you and demand money over the phone,” the Largo Police Department said on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police say that if you receive a call like this one:<\/p>\n

Do not send moneyDo not provide credit or debit card informationDo not give any bank account informationDo not share your Social Security number or any other personal informationDo not purchase any gift cards, cryptocurrency, prepaid cards or make a wire transfer at the caller’s direction <\/p>\n

Largo police is also reminding the public that a caller ID can be spoofed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Spoofing is when someone disguises an email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL\u2014often just by changing one letter, symbol, or number\u2014to convince you that you are interacting with a trusted source,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website.<\/p>\n

Officers also warn that scammers may be using real names, titles, badge numbers or present other information to create an illusion of legitimacy.<\/p>\n

“If you’re concerned whether the call may be legitimate, contact the Largo Police Department directly using an official phone number, not a number provided by the caller,” Largo police say. “When in doubt, stop, hang up, and verify independently.”<\/p>\n

Largo Police Chief Mike Loux is retiring in Jan. 2027 after more than three decades with the department<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LARGO, Fla. \u2014 Largo police is warning residents about a new scam where a caller pretends to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-395219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395219","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=395219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}