{"id":68494,"date":"2025-12-02T20:44:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T20:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68494\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T20:44:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T20:44:06","slug":"fort-myers-beach-issues-warning-on-scammers-targeting-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68494\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Myers Beach issues warning on scammers targeting residents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Myers Beach residents are being warned of a scam website contacting residents with fraudulent requests for wire transfer payments related to special event permits, construction permits, or other Town services.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say these communications do not come from the Town, and residents are urged to take care.<\/p>\n<p>The Town of Fort Myers Beach does not invoice residents by email and will never ask for wire transfers as a form of payment. All legitimate payments for permits or Town services must be made exclusively through the Town\u2019s secure online payment portal. Residents should also carefully review the sender\u2019s email address. Authentic Town communications will always come from an email ending with @fmbgov.com.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the holidays approaching and seasonal residents returning, this is a prime time for scammers to target our community\u2014especially older adults who are too often preyed upon,\u201d Town Manager Will McKannay said. \u201cWe want all residents to remain alert and protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To further safeguard the public, the Town has added a prominent fraud warning on its Permitting webpage reminding residents that wire transfers are not part of any Town payment process. If you receive a suspicious email or payment request, do not click any links, do not send funds, and do not provide personal information. When in doubt, always verify directly with the Town. Residents should call Town Hall at 239-765-0202 to confirm the legitimacy of any communication or payment request.<\/p>\n<p>For additional updates and official information,   visit www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov.<\/p>\n<p>WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wgcu.secureallegiance.com\/wgcu\/WebModule\/Donate.aspx?P=JOURNALISM&amp;PAGETYPE=PLG&amp;CHECK=Fh6V9MuzTVcdN7RxIr2SYb1YhDw50SikSh2nq0qouhg%3d\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">donate\u00a0<\/a>now. Thank you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Myers Beach residents are being warned of a scam website contacting residents with fraudulent requests for wire&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-68494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68494","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=68494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}