Special Report: Economic crimes on the rise in SWFL

Special Report: Economic crimes on the rise in SWFL

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Southwest Florida law enforcement says there is a very good chance you could be a target of a growing type of crime.

In this Four in Your Corner special report, we’re showing you the alarming rise in economic crimes and how the Cape Coral Police Department is handling it.

In the past year, identity theft and other types of economic crimes have skyrocketed, especially in Southwest Florida with a high number of tourists and elderly residents.

As technology improves, so do the opportunities for thieves.

“You don’t know what to do. I just sat down and cried,” said Cape Coral resident Brandy Darling. She recently found herself the victim of identity theft after a quick swipe of her credit card at a Fort Myers gas station.

A crook installed a credit card skimmer at a pump and stripped Brandy of more than $850.

“As a single mom, that’s it!” Brandy said. “You’re out of that money. You don’t know what to do. People get away with it. They cheat, they steal, they lie and they’re walking away with my $851.”

Brandy didn’t find out about the theft until days later when she was trying to buy groceries.

“How would you describe the way the department is right now?” reporter Kelli Stegeman asked Sgt. Dina Cox with the Cape Coral Police Department.

“We are basically swamped,” replied Sgt. Cox, who heads up the Economic Crimes Unit where 2 detectives are investigating the easy, lucrative and booming crimes like identity theft and tax fraud.

“White collar crime in my opinion is very easy to commit because it’s almost an anonymous type of crime,” said Sgt. Cox.

The crimes could take weeks to realize and by that time the cook is long gone. Then begins the tedious work to solve the crime, if it can be solved at all.

“We’ll probably see additional detectives added within the next year or two,” said Sgt. Dana Coston, the spokesman for the Cape Coral Police Department.

Sgt. Cox says her unit is seeing double the caseloads of others.

“It seems to be the new trend where we’re not recovering a large amount of cash in situations where we used to in the past,” Sgt. Cox said.

Now, they are seeing more gift cards in place of the cash that are reencoded with stolen credit card information.

Some of the other new trends the department is seeing includes:

– accounts opened with no knowledge until a collection agency calls

– websites where crooks can actually buy stolent credit card numbers.

Aside from general safety tips, like regularly checking your entire family’s credit reports, what else can you do?

When applying for a store credit card or loan, ask for the paper back that you filled out after the clerk enters that information into the computer. You never know what that paper will end up.

Always shred your documents.

Keep your credit card limits reduced until the times you actually need to increase the credit so thieves don’t have extra money to play with.

“People think that economic crimes or identity theft crimes, there isn’t a victim, but ultimately we all pay for that,” Sgt. Cox said.

Sgt. Coston says there is a new initiative that is growing for businesses in the United States to move from our current system of ‘swipe and sign’ to a more secure system known as ‘chip and pin.’ That system will cost a bit of money to implement.

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